LIBRARV 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CAUFORNIA 

S/\N  DIEGO 


f/A/ 


CHRISTIANITY 

AND  THE 

SOCIAL  RAGE 


BY 


ADOLPH  A.  R^RLE,  A.M.,  D.D. 

Director  of  the  N^irEngland  Civics  Institute 


NEW  YORK 

McBRIDE,  NAST  &  COMPANY 

1914 


COPYRIGHT,   1914,    BY 
McBride,  Nast  &  Co. 


Published  October,  igi^. 


To 

WINTHROP  MURRAY  CRANE 

A    Citizen,    most   honored    where   best   known;    an 

Employer,  beloved  by  those  who  labor  with  him; 

a  Philanthropist,  who  gives  with  simplicity; 

a   Public   Servant,  upright   and  without 

fear;  a  Loyal  Friend,  through  good 

and   evil   report; 

This  Volume  is  aflfectionately  dedicated. 


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PREFACE 

This  volume  is  the  outcome  of  studies  ranging  over 
a  considerable  space  of  years  in  which  public  opinion 
has  changed  many  times  concerning  the  subjects  dis- 
cussed in  the  various  chapters.  The  prevailing  note 
of  the  period  in  which  we  are  living  is  one  of  social 
aspiration  and  communal  happiness  and  well  being. 
It  is  a  noble  and  holy  hope  which  longs  to  see  right- 
eousness among  men  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  visibly 
ruling  in  the  hearts  and  activities  of  men.  There  is 
little  in  the  life  of  Americans  nowadays  which  is  not 
in  some  way  tinctured  with  this  desire.  But  like  all 
such  aspirations,  the  border  line  between  rational 
growth  and  progress  and  fanatical  rage,  is  not  always 
observed,  with  the  result  that  what  begins  by  being 
a  perfectly  sound  protest  against  onerous  conditions 
and  iniquitous  principles  eventuates  often  in  a  mere 
rage  for  change  which  not  only  is  not  rational,  but 
defeats  the  very  purposes  for  which  the  reform  was 
originally  begun,  forgetting  upon  what  it  rests.  I 
have  endeavored  in  all  cases  to  state  the  case  for  the 
reformers  as  vigorously  and  as  clearly  as  they  could 
or  have  stated  it  for  themselves.  But  I  have  also,  in 
view  of  the  fact,  that  I  see  the  defeat  of  many  of 
these  things,  through  their  foolish  departure  from  the 
only  sound  substructure  upon  which  they  can  possi- 


Preface 

bly  succeed,  undertaken  to  give  the  underlying  moral 
and  spiritual  base,  without  which,  it  is  to  me  foolish 
to  expect  that  enduring  social  advance  can  be  secured. 
I  make  no  apology  for  finding  this  base  in  historic 
Christianity,  because,  in  the  historical  unfolding  of 
civilization,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  constant  factor  of 
genuine  growth,  is  the  increasing  acceptance  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  sanctions  which  Jesus  Christ  laid 
down  in  the  Christian  gospel.  This  does  not  of 
course,  mean  any  narrow,  sectarian  or  theological 
Christianity.  Theological  Christianity  has  been  per- 
haps the  most  constant  foe  of  genuine  social  advance 
known  in  history,  because  theological  Christianity  has 
usually  meant  ecclesiasticism  and  ecclesiasticism,  un- 
qualified by  vigorous  and  vital  civil  administration, 
has  uniformly  corrupted  everything  it  has  controlled. 
This  was  inevitable,  because  no  group  of  men  have 
ever  been  or  ever  will  be  good  enough,  or  wise  enough, 
to  have  unrestricted  supervision  over  their  fellow 
creatures.  Unqualified  power  has  rarely  been  wisely 
administered.  For  this  same  reason,  democracy, 
without  qualifications  cannot  emerge  in  anything  but 
tyranny  or  anarchy.  I  yield  to  no  man  in  my  devo- 
tion to  democracy.  But  as  an  unyielding  democrat, 
I  do  not  find  myself  bound  to  believe  that  every 
plebiscite  reveals  a  mandate  from  Heaven!  I  refuse 
to  accept  any  sort  of  infallibility,  even  the  infallibility 
of  the  "  people  " ! 

But  I  also  believe  that  the  qualifications  by  which 
democracy  is  to  be  saved  must  come  from  the  substi- 
tution for  external  authority,  of  an  inner  moral  pur- 


Preface 

pose  which  is  grounded  in  religion  and  a  conception 
like  that  of  Jesus*  Kingdom  of  Grod.  It  is  to  corre- 
late the  social  hope  with  that  inner  moral  govern- 
ment that  has  inspired  the  writing  of  this  book.  To 
do  this  fairly  is  not  an  easy  task,  because  spiritual 
aspiration  and  authority  are  so  easily  identified  with 
ecclesiastical  control.  I  do  not  therefore  expect  that 
social  doctrinaires  will  be  satisfied  with  my  position, 
though  I  do  not  think  any  of  them  will  claim  that  I 
have  not  stated  the  evils  they  complain  of  vigorously 
enough.  Mere  ecclesiastical  Christians,  of  course, 
will  not  approve.  They  are,  however,  of  no  particu- 
lar consequence  in  any  case.  But  I  hope  the  genuine 
Christianity  of  the  land,  in  the  church  and  out  of  it, 
will  feel  that  something  worth  while  has  been  done, 
in  this  statement  of  the  great  question,  in  which 
whether  living  or  dying  we  are  the  Lord's  and  each 
other's.  Several  of  the  closing  chapters  have  ap- 
peared in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  and  have  occasioned 
wide  correspondence  with  interested  men  and  women, 
throughout  the  land.  They  will  welcome  them  in  this 
permanent  form  with  the  modifications  which  have 
been  necessary  for  incorporation  here. 

A.  A.  Berle. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  Sept.  i,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

i    The  True  Nature  of  Christianity 3 

II    Miracles  or  Money 41 

III  Religion   and  Taxation 67 

IV  The  Moral  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     .    95 
V    Quacks  Abounding 123 

VI    SoCTAL  Justice  on  the  Curbstone 145 

VII    Feminism 175 

VIII    Israel  in  Bondage 207 

IX    Democracy 245 

X    Health 267 

XI    'Religious   Education 291 

XII    Universities  and  Social  Advance 333 

XIII    Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again 365 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  TRUE  NATURE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


If  we  turn  away  from  abstract  selfish  conceptions  of  virtue, 
and  consider  the  concrete  relations  in  which  men  stand  to  each 
other  in  society,  we  shall  see  at  once  that  without  regeneration 
there  can  be  no  true  and  worthy  social  life.  Take  the  family, 
business  science,  art,  social  intercourse  and  the  state.  In  each 
of  these  spheres  regeneration  is  an  absolute  necessity  to  the 
realization  of  its  ideal.  The  principle  of  life  which  we  derive 
from  nature,  and  with  which  we  all  start  out,  is  one  that  must 
be  abandoned  and  destroyed,  and  a  new  principle  or,  rather,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  must  take  its  place,  before  a  man  is  fit  to  be  husband 
and  father;  before  he  can  be  an  honor  to  any  craft,  business 
or  profession ;  before  he  can  deserve  the  name  of  scholar ;  be- 
fore he  can  adorn  any  circle  of  society;  before  he  can  be  a  true 
and  loyal  citizen  of  any  state. 

William  De  Witt  Hyde, 
"  Outlines  of  a  Social  Theology." 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   THE 
SOCIAL    RAGE 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   TRUE   NATURE  OF   CHRISTIANITY 


CHRISTIANITY  is  a  controversy.  When  it  is 
not  a  controversy  it  is  likely  to  be  a  superstition 
or  a  form  of  fetichism.  It  had  its  rise  in  the  effort 
of  a  group  of  individuals  who  were  thoroughly  at  war 
with  the  existing  order  of  human  life  and  the  stand- 
ards governing  it  and  were  willing  to  give  their  lives 
in  the  struggle  against  both.  The  old  order  accepted 
the  challenge  of  the  Founder  and  promptly  employed 
the  usual  forms  of  suppression.  It  gibbeted  Jesus 
Christ  and  whenever  it  became  necessary  to  do  the 
same  or  similar  things  to  the  real  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ  it  had  no  hesitation  in  doing  them.  The  lead- 
ers of  the  old  order  only  failed  in  doing  these  things, 
when  they  failed  to  perceive  the  true  nature  of  Chris- 
tianity. When  they  did  perceive  it  they  saw  that  the 
struggle  was  one  of  life  or  death.  Christianity  could 
not  triumph  except  in  their  extinction.     Hence  these 

3 


4      Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

leaders  set  in  motion  every  agency  at  their  command 
to  secure  the  extinction  of  the  leaders  of  Christianity. 

This  was  a  perfectly  natural  and  logical  proceed- 
ing. Christianity  looked  to  a  new  world,  a  new 
social  order,  a  new  valuation  of  individual  life,  a  new 
conception  of  human  liberty  and  a  new  theory  of  hu- 
man government.  Any  one  of  these  involved  a  revo- 
lution and  together  they  constituted  a  menace  to  almost 
everything  that  existed  at  the  time  when  Christianity 
appeared.  The  more  astute  of  the  disciples  of  the 
old  order  saw  this  perfectly  clearly.  The  more  clear 
headed  of  Christian  leaders  saw  it  likewise.  Both 
perceived  that  anything  like  a  compromise  was  not 
only  impossible  but  absurd.  Hence  nobody  thought 
of  compromise.  It  was  a  war  to  the  death.  And 
death  it  meant  to  many  on  both  sides.  This  is  the 
simplest  reading  of  early  Christian  history  and  the 
foundation  for  its  understanding. 

A  thorough  grasp  of  this  view  of  the  case  will  ne- 
cessitate in  many  minds  an  equally  thorough  revision 
of  their  view  of  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
prevailing  notion  that  Jesus  was  a  heavenly  minded 
peasant  dreaming  his  life  away  yvith  visions  of  a 
beatific  world  in  which  all  things  resembled  a  sub- 
limated prayer  meeting  or  a  revival  chorus,  is  contra- 
dicted by  every  reasonable  interpretation  of  what  we 
find  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  In  the  first 
place  Jesus  was  not  a  wanderer  in  the  fields  and  a 
recliner  by  quiet  streams  dreaming  about  a  glorified 
world.  His  life  was  as  nearly  an  urban  life  as  in 
the  state  of  things  it  possibly  could  be.     Most  of  his 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity      5 

life  was  spent  in  the  relatively  urban  communities  of 
Jerusalem  and  Capernaum.  These  places  were  the 
"  cities  "  of  his  time  and  country.  They  corresponded 
to  the  city  of  to-day  in  its  relation  to  the  rural  re- 
gions and  their  population.  In  these  he  uttered  him- 
self most  freely  and  in  these  the  nature  of  his 
personality  and  teaching  most  fully  expressed  itself. 
In  both  he  met  the  fundamental  problems  of  human 
life  and  in  one  of  them  he  met  the  answer  of  the  old 
order  to  the  same.  The  priestly  oligarchy  at  Jerusa- 
lem did,  from  their  standpoint,  exactly  what  they 
ought  to  have  done.  Skilled  casuists,  as  many  of  them 
undoubtedly  were,  they  saw  that  their  only  hope  was 
in  the  destruction  of  the  central  figure  in  such  a 
propaganda  as  Jesus  represented.  That  it  did  not 
work  out  as  they  expected  it  would,  could  not  be  fore- 
seen by  them.  They  were  acting  according  to  the 
best  light  of  their  time  and  according  to  a  logic  which 
has  not  been  substantially  altered  since. 

There  is  evidence  that  Jesus  gradually  saw  this 
with  increasing  clearness  himself.  And  He  likewise 
accepted  the  issue,  with  this  difference,  that  probably 
He  saw  that  His  cause  would  be  more  powerful  in 
His  death  than  it  could  possibly  be  in  His  life.  Other 
spiritual  pioneers  learning  from  His  example  have 
seen  the  same  thing.  John  Brown  immediately  oc- 
curs to  one  as  the  most  striking  example.  He  also 
saw  that  the  struggle  with  slavery  was  a  death  strug- 
gle. When  the  opponents  of  slavery  saw  this  as 
clearly  as  John  Brown  saw  it,  the  end  of  slavery  was 
in  sight,  because  both  sides  fought  to  a  finish.     It  was 


6      Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

a  war  of  extinction  for  one  side  or  the  other.  The 
Christian  martyrs  generally  speaking  saw  this  truth 
also.  They  found  out,  by  practical  experience,  that 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  the  seed  of  the  church, 
because  it  revealed  most  clearly  and  inevitably  that 
the  struggle  of  Christianity  with  the  world  as  they 
found  it  was  a  death  struggle.  They  reasoned  and 
they  reasoned  rightly  that  when  all  possibility  of  com- 
promise is  removed,  somebody  presently  makes  a  de- 
cisive change. 

Every  period  of  Christian  history  in  which  Chris- 
tianity has  flourished,  meaning  by  this,  not  any  insti- 
tution which  called  itself  Christianity,  but  genuine 
Christianity,  in  the  life  and  behavior  of  individuals, 
has  exhibited  the  same  phenomenon.  Once  the  revo- 
lutionary nature  of  the  contest  was  revealed  some- 
thing had  to  give  way.  Sometimes  the  Christians 
were  literally  wiped  out.  That  was  logical  and  so 
far  as  it  went  satisfactory  to  those  who  were  opposed 
to  Christianity.  Not  infrequently  the  Christians, 
finding  that  they  could  not  persuade  their  opponents 
to  become  Christians,  exterminated  them  precisely  as 
their  opponents  had  exterminated  Christians.  This 
was  logical  enough,  except  that  it  abandoned  the 
Christian  way  and  ultimately  reacted  upon  and  weak- 
ened Christianity,  by  destroying  the  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  Christianity  and  the  old  order  which 
it  sought  to  supplant.  But,  at  least,  the  fact  was  kept 
clear  that  the  struggle  was  a  revolutionary  one.  It 
meant  not  compromises  but  exterminations.  This 
has  been  repeated   so  many  times  in  one   form  or 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity      7 

another  in  the  history  of  Christianity  that  the  fact 
is  clear. 

From  all  this  it  becomes  apparent  that  the  true  na- 
ture of  Christianity  is  one  which  demands,  nay  com- 
pels, controversy  with  the  existing  order  of  the  world 
whatever  that  order  happens  to  be.  Christianity 
contemplates  a  world  of  justice  and  brotherhood.  So 
long  as  justice  is  wanting  in  any  portion  of  the  Hfe  of 
mankind,  Christianity  will  be,  if  it  is  true  to  itself,  at 
war  with  the  existing  order.  The  religion  of  Christ 
has  no  mission  where  there  are  no  wrongs  to  right. 
It  has  no  mission  where  there  are  no  imperfections 
to  improve.  It  has  no  mission  where  there  is  satis- 
faction and  contentment.  But  in  a  world  which  is 
full  of  wrongs  to  right,  which  is  full  of  imperfections 
both  individual  and  social,  where  no  rational  person 
can  have  satisfaction  or  contentment  for  any  consid- 
erable period,  Christianity  must  be  at  war.  It  is  not 
an  accident  that  so  much  of  the  imagery  employed  in 
the  New  Testament  and  the  early  and  in  fact  in  all 
Christian  literature,  is  drawn  from  war.  These  ex- 
press the  true  nature  of  Christianity's  controversy 
with  the  world  and  almost  everything  in  it.  In  fact, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  mission  of  Christianity  never 
can  be  ended,  because  it  has  as  one  of  its  fundamental 
postulates  to  create  sins  where  none  existed  before. 
Habits,  institutions,  practises,  which  the  world  ac- 
cepts complacently  or  regards  as  fixed  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  Christianity  to  examine  in  the  light  of  its  own 
demand  for  perfection  and  justice  and  thus  create  a 
sense  of  sin  and  hence  ultimately  sins  where  there 


8      Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

was  no  such  sense  of  sin  before.  A  Christian  com- 
munity without  a  fight  on  its  hands  for  something  bet- 
ter in  manners,  morals,  social,  industrial,  political  or 
educational  life  is  an  absurdity.  For  this  reason  a 
Christian  church  that  is  not  a  center  of  world  antag- 
onism is  either  foolishness  or  fetichism.  Its  business 
is  to  fight  sin.  Should  such  a  thing  be  possible,  as  a 
community  in  where  there  are  "  no  foes  to  face  "  it 
would  be  the  business  to  create  such  by  examining  its 
fundamental  institutions  in  the  light  of  pure  truth  and 
justice  and  manufacture  new  sins,  by  showing  a 
higher  order  of  life  and  humanity  unattained.  But 
there  is  no  such  community  nor  is  there  any  likelihood 
that  there  ever  will  be.  Hence  Christianity  must  be 
controversy  to  the  end  of  time.  Its  work  will  never 
be  finished  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  never  can  contem- 
plate a  completed  moral  world. 

Nor  is  all  this  at  variance  with  those  conceptions  of 
Christianity  which  regard  nurture  and  the  permeation 
of  society  with  Christian  ideals,  through  what  are 
sometimes  called  indirect  methods.  The  truth  is, 
Christian  nurture,  rightly  understood,  means  rearing 
a  human  being  who  can  fight  and  fight  successfully 
the  sin  of  the  world,  in  whatever  form  he  happens  to 
come  into  collision  with  it.  The  only  reason  for  a 
Sunday  school,  for  example,  is  to  train  a  young  person 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  Christianity  means 
a  war  on  the  sin  of  the  world.  Of  course  it  begins 
in  the  conflict  for  personal  moral  standards,  conform- 
ing with  the  teaching  of  Christ.  But  it  can  hardly 
stop  there.     As  a  matter  of  fact  with  fully  matured 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity      9 

Christians  it  never  does.  The  vast  majority  of  Chris- 
tians who  simply  go  through  the  motions  of  Christian 
worship  arc  simply  parasites  who  live  on  the  labor 
of  the  fighting  minority  who  express  the  real  nature 
of  the  Christian  gospel.  They  simply  enjoy  what 
the  few  gain  and  hold  in  the  death  struggle  in  which 
the  genuine  Christianity  of  the  world  is  always  en- 
gaged. They  count  for  whatever  the  paper  strength 
of  a  modern  army  may  mean,  as  contrasted  with  its 
effective  strength.  The  effective  strength  of  Chris- 
tianity is  that  portion  which  is  actively  engaged  in 
creating  the  forces  which  can  compel  the  extinction 
of  the  things  with  which  Christianity  is  at  war. 

It  does  not  follow  from  all  this  either  that  Chris- 
tianity necessarily  means  warlikeness  or  violence  or 
force.  Under  stress,  it  may  mean  all  these.  But 
that  Christianity  is  a  controversy  does  not  mean  that 
it  must  use  the  crude  weapons  of  force.  Its  war  may 
be  a  war  of  the  printing  press,  the  courts  or  the  ballot 
box.  It  may  mean  the  agitation  of  the  revival  cru- 
sade or  it  may  mean  the  scholarly  research  into  orig- 
inal sources  in  the  theological  cloister.  But  all  these 
are  but  the  forging  of  the  instruments  that  must 
mean,  in  the  end,  the  destruction  of  something  with 
which  Christianity  is  everlastingly  at  war,  namely  the 
sin  and  imperfection  of  the  world.  Sometimes  the 
relations  of  these  things  are  not  perceived  and  theo- 
logical labors  become  mere  pedantic  studies  and  re- 
vival crusades  become  emotional  debauches.  But  at 
their  best,  both  are  a  part  of  the  propaganda  which 
looks  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world,  not  by  com- 


10    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

promises,  not  by  modifications  of  the  world's  program 
of  life,  but  by  the  destruction  of  the  sin  of  the  world 
and  the  substitution  of  righteousness.  A  proper  ap- 
preciation of  this  fact  would  destroy  the  peace  of 
mind  of  many  persons  and  it  ought  to.  The  decline 
of  ecclesiastical  authority  and  power,  notwithstand- 
ing the  immense  augmentation  of  the  moral  forces  of 
the  world,  shows  clearly  what  happens  when  the  na- 
ture of  Christianity  is  not  understood.  When  Chris- 
tianity through  its  representative  institutions  becomes 
the  champion  of  the  existing  order,  no  matter  what 
the  order  happens  to  be,  and  apologizes  for  it,  or 
merely  explains  it  or  in  fact  does  anything  but  assail 
and  try  to  destroy  it,  Christianity,  or  rather  its  insti- 
tutions, properly  become  themselves  the  subjects  of 
the  attack  of  the  expanding  moral  life  of  the  world. 
At  this  stage  of  the  world's  history,  that  expanding 
moral  life  is  the  true  Christianity  at  work.  It  labors 
through  so-called  Christian  institutions  when  and 
while  it  can.  When  they  become  jejune  or  lifeless 
it  drops  the  institutions  and  starts  an  extra-ecclesias- 
tical war  for  righteousness.  Sooner  or  later  the 
institutions  adopt  the  new  order. 

II 

The  aggressive  character  of  Christianity  becomes 
more  accentuated  when  it  is  remembered  that  it  is  a 
form  of  collectivism.  Perhaps  this  is  the  simplest 
and  most  accurate  way  of  stating  the  fact.  But  even 
a  casual  reading  of  the  New  Testament  reveals  that 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity     ii 

while  the  religion  of  Jesus  contemplates  vast  personal 
improvements  and  a  drastic  program  of  personal  self- 
control  and  self-development  these  are  but  preliminary 
to  a  larger  program  which  is  called  the  creation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Concerning  the  exact  significa- 
tion of  this  term  it  is  not  now  necessary  to  speak.  It 
is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  a  form  of  collectivism  and 
the  only  purpose  of  the  individual  enrichment  or 
growth  is  for  the  perfection  of  the  social  whole  called 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  this 
collective  idea  is  not  a  federal  thing,  created  by  agree- 
ment and  sustained  by  statutes,  but  arising  from  the 
nature  of  humanity  and  the  necessities  of  the  case. 
It  is  therefore  not  a  voluntary  matter  at  all.  Chris- 
tians are  not  a  voluntary  group  held  together  by  vol- 
untary association.  They  are  members  of  the  King- 
dom because  they  are  organically  members  one  of 
another  and  the  completion  of  the  life  of  each  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  redemption  of  all. 

Here  again  we  have  presented  to  us  the  most  pow- 
erful of  reasons  why  Christianity  can  never  be  at 
peace  and  why  in  its  nature  it  must  forever  be  in  the 
field  of  an  eternal  conflict.  Self-realization  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  means  that  he  must  be  forever 
on  the  search  for  the  remaining  members  of  the  group, 
who  without  him  cannot  become  perfect  and  without 
whom  he  cannot  become  perfect  himself.  He  must 
therefore  be  forever  breaking  down  the  impediments 
to  his  union  with  what  is  his  ultimate  life,  his  own 
self -completion  and  self-realization.  The  other  mem- 
bers of  the  group  must  be  at  the  same  business.     The 


12    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

group  comprising  all  humanity  makes  this  task  as 
world  wide  as  humanity.  Hence  the  individual  can 
no  more  think  of  himself  apart  from  the  rest  of  man- 
kind than  an  arm  or  a  foot  can  think  of  itself  apart 
from  the  human  body.  Indeed  the  body  is  the  figure 
employed  in  the  New  Testament  to  express  the  or- 
ganic union  of  all  Christians. 

The  net  result  of  this  conception  is  merely  that  it 
enlarges  the  area  of  controversy.  What  might  easily 
become  a  clan  or  race  or  national  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity, is  thus  kept  down  in  the  view  of  a  humafi 
Christianity  which  embraces  all  mankind.  This 
means  war  not  only  with  those  institutions  which  sep- 
arate nations  from  realizing  their  own  social  and 
human  solidarity,  but  hardly  less  war  with  those  that 
separate  nations  and  languages  from  each  other  and 
keep  the  human  race  divided  into  groups  more  or  less 
alien  if  not  absolutely  hostile.  The  firing  line,  to  con- 
tinue the  military  symbolism,  is  thus  far  extended. 
Even  supposing  peace  to  have  been  secured  at  home, 
the  war  must  be  carried  on  abroad.  It  is  easy  to  see 
from  this  that  there  is  no  end  in  sight  for  this  strug- 
gle even  with  the  elements  of  the  contest.  The  war 
begins  with  the  individual  himself  struggling  for 
self  mastery,  extends  to  the  social  group  where  he 
happens  to  be,  widens  out  to  the  nation  and  finally 
to  the  whole  world.  And  as  before  stated  even  then 
there  is  no  peace,  since  a  perfected  world  is  unthink- 
able and  every  fresh  development  which  requires  the 
readjustment  of  human  relations  according  to  justice 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity     13 

and    brotherhood    requires   the    realignment    of    the 
forces  throughout  the  entire  world. 

The  immediate  effect,  however,  of  the  collectivist 
conception  of  Christianity  is  to  emphasize  its  social 
obligations.  The  individual  hardly  recognizes  his 
personal  duties  and  possibilities  than  he  is  plunged 
into  the  question  of  social  responsibility  and  this  con- 
fronts him  at  the  threshold  of  his  Christian  conscious- 
ness of  himself.  It  may  almost  be  said  that  his 
Christian  self-recognition  and  his  recognition  of  his 
social  duty  are  synchronous.  At  all  events  for  prac- 
tical purposes  they  cannot  be  separated  and  some 
thinkers  have  held  that  Christian  self -recognition  is 
itself  proved  only  by  the  discovery  of  social  duty. 
However  this  may  be,  there  is  injected  at  once  by 
this  knowledge  into  the  life  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian a  permanent  source  of  unrest  and  anxiety  for 
the  future  of  his  fellow  men.  For  better  or  for 
worse,  he  is  launched  on  a  sea  that  knows  no  shores. 
No  single  human  creature  is  beyond  the  imperative 
which  is  thus  forced  upon  him.  All  men  become 
classified  to  his  religious  consciousness  as  either  ex- 
pressing and  forwarding  this  quest  and  anxiety  or 
denying  it  and  refusing  to  be  bound  by  it.  And  this 
classification  inaugurates  the  struggle  in  which  one  or 
the  other  conception  must  perish.  It  is  the  collective 
conception  of  Christianity  which  has  taught  the  world 
the  true  nature  of  Christianity.  So  long  as  Chris- 
tianity confined  itself  to  the  business  of  merely  pro- 
ducing  admirable   persons,   amiable,    attractive   and 


14    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

worthy  but  with  no  interest  or  ambition  for  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  rest  of  the  world  to  the  Christian 
ideal,  the  existing  order  had  no  particular  use  for 
Christianity  except  as  a  periodical  salve  for  its  most 
festering  wounds.  But  the  moment  it  became  imbued 
with  the  zeal  of  its  real  essence,  it  also  became  sur- 
gical in  its  excision  of  what  was  repugnant  to  its 
coUectivist  ideal  and  then  the  war  opens  with  vigor 
and  often  with  virulence.  It  will  be  seen  in  the  sub- 
sequent unfolding  of  this  idea  how  fully  Christian 
history  bears  out  this  statement. 

So  true  is  the  principle  which  has  just  been  laid 
down  that  it  may  be  said  that  the  very  metaphysical 
struggles  of  the  theologians,  worthless  and  stupid  as 
most  of  them  have  been,  are  now  seen  to  have  had  as 
their  raison  d'etre  precisely  this  idea.  When  such 
conflicts  have  been  sincere  and  born  out  of  the  vital 
life  of  the  contending  factions,  they  have  always  had 
their  spring  in  the  belief  by  each  side  that  it  was 
fighting  for  the  life  of  Christianity.  It  is  illuminating 
to  note  how  zealously  each  side  contended  that  what 
it  had  to  offer  was  not  a  program,  but  Christianity 
itself  and  with  full  realization  of  the  vital  nature  of 
the  struggle  of  genuine  Christianity  with  the  world, 
the  fighting  theologians  were  forced  to  take  toward 
their  opponents  exactly  the  attitude  they  took  toward 
the  rest  of  the  world,  namely,  no  compromise,  but 
utter  extinction.  Theological  warfare  has  always 
had  a  deep  interest  for  mankind  because  of  this  fact. 
Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  also  why  it  has  been  the 
bitterest  kind  of  warfare.     But  in  any  case  the  con- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity     15 

sciousness  of  the  exclusive  character  of  Christianity 
made  them  fight  to  the  very  bitter  end  however  mis- 
takenly, because  they  thought  that  what  they  were 
saving  for  the  world  was  Christianity  itself.  It  is 
highly  instructive  to  observe  that  such  theological 
feuds  rarely  if  ever  ended  in  compromises.  Com- 
promise was  itself  perceived  to  be  a  form  of  death. 
Whatever  one  may  think  of  their  temper  and  spirit, 
their  logic  was  flawless. 

In  the  midst  of  these  controversies  within  the 
sphere  of  what  was  called  Christian  fellowship,  there 
was  never  wanting  for  a  single  moment  another  con- 
ception which  emphasized  the  consciousness  of  the 
collective  nature  of  Christianity.  Each  side  usually 
maintained  that  it  was  engaged  as  much  in  saving  the 
souls  of  its  antagonists  as  in  saving  its  own.  This 
provokes  a  cynical  smile  with  us,  but  it  was  the  fact. 
It  is  now  known  to  be  psychologically  possible  for  an 
inquisitor  to  torture  the  very  life  out  of  his  theolog- 
ical victim  and  then  go  placidly  to  his  closet  and  pray 
for  the  peace  of  his  soul  and  to  rejoice  that  he  has 
been  saved  from  further  continuance  in  his  evil  ways ! 
Christian  literature  has  plenty  of  material  which 
shows  this  to  be  the  case  not  merely  in  the  distant  but 
not  less  so  in  the  more  recent  history  of  religious 
persecution.  Contradictory  and  farcical  as  this  may 
seem  to  be,  nevertheless  it  is  a  form  of  religious  phe- 
nomena found  only  in  Christian  annals.  No  other 
religion  ever  dreamed  that  in  torturing  a  theological 
opponent  you  were  doing  him  a  spiritual  service.  Yet 
Christianity  has  such  records  and  they  are  now  psy- 


i6    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

chologically  explicable.  But  they  are  also  explicable 
from  the  fact  that,  side  by  side  with  the  idea  of  per- 
sonal and  individual  redemption,  the  collectivist  idea 
of  religion,  the  solidarity  of  humanity,  the  yearning 
for  the  realization  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  so 
intimately  present,  as  to  actually  produce  the  gro- 
tesque results  above  indicated. 

But  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  same  influences 
which  produced  the  demonstrations  which  everywhere 
disfigure  theological  controversy,  within  the  ranks  of 
Christians,  so-called,  were  the  very  ones  which  ulti- 
mately made  for  religious  freedom  and  liberty  of 
thought.  Mere  tolerance  because  the  power  to  per- 
secute is  absent  is  not  much  of  an  achievement.  But 
tolerance  because  the  solidarity  of  mankind  and  the 
realization  of  justice  and  brotherhood  require  the 
full  expression  of  each  individual,  because  necessary 
to  the  completion  of  the  whole,  is  a  sublime  idea. 
Formerly  the  theological  persecutor  slew  his  antag- 
onist or  tortured  him  into  salvation  because  he 
thought  that  was  the  best  way  of  saving  his,  that  is 
the  victim's,  soul,  as  well  as  his  own.  The  tolerance 
that  sees  that  the  only  way  truth  can  possibly  be  dis- 
covered is  by  fighting  for  the  freedom  of  each  man 
and  securing  for  him  absolutely  unhampered  spiritual 
and  social  liberty  because  no  man  liveth  to  himself, 
but  that  living  or  dying,  we  are  the  Lord's  and  each 
other's,  is  the  modern  way  of  saying  the  same  thing 
and  the  modern  way  of  doing  it.  Queer  as  it  sounds 
to  say  it,  these  things  are  not  different  except  in 
method.     There  is  the  same  amount  of  human  imper- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity     17 

fection  and  often  stupidity  (and  some  things  not  so 
stupid)  mixed  in  both  forms  of  action.  But  allowing 
for  changes  in  general  knowledge,  enlightenment  and 
experience,  they  are  not  fundamentally  different. 
Both  sought  solidarity.  Both  sought  the  unification 
and  expression  of  the  ultimate  Christian  ideal.  Both 
firmly  believed  they  expressed  the  unity  which  is  in 
Christ.  The  difference  in  method  is  not  substantially 
greater  than  the  difference  between  the  armor  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  that  of  to-day.  The  striking  thing  is 
that,  in  all  cases,  men  were  wilHng  to  die  for  the  ideal. 
They  were  willing  to  endure  anything  for  it,  believing 
that  the  struggle  of  Christianity  with  the  existing 
order  is  a  life  and  death  affair.  That  is  the  important 
feature  of  the  situation  in  every  phase  which  these 
contests  present. 

From  all  this  it  must  appear  that  the  controversial 
nature  of  Christianity  shows  that  the  struggle  was 
not  merely  for  victory  but  for  possession.  That  is 
it  was  not  merely  for  the  right  to  be  in  the  world  un- 
harmed and  unhindered,  but  for  the  subjugation  of 
the  world  and  all  of  it.  Nothing  could  be  left  un- 
touched. Nothing  could  be  let  alone.  It  has  taken 
ages  for  Christianity  to  get  at  some  things  but  it  has 
finally  taken  hold  of  them.  There  are  many  things 
which  it  has  not  touched  yet,  but  it  may  be  affirmed 
absolutely  that  there  is  no  phase  of  human  life  or 
activity,  no  possible  department  of  humanity's  mani- 
fold interests  which  sooner  or  later  will  not  be  brought 
into  the  foreground  of  the  Christian  consciousness  and 
there  made  the  subject  of  the  scrutiny,  that  involves 


i8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

a  life  or  death  struggle.  Postponed,  with  reference 
to  any  wrong,  does  not  mean  that  it  is  either  forgotten 
or  overlooked.  Its  day  will  come.  Tardily  perhaps 
but  surely,  the  fight  comes  on.  It  is  impossible  that 
it  should  be  otherwise.  Christianity  does  not  con- 
template peace.  It  does  not  contemplate  contentment. 
It  has  no  place  for  satisfaction  for  long.  Its  ideals 
of  to-day  vanish  over  night  into  new  ones  to-morrow. 


Ill 

A  controversy  that  must  emerge  in  the  extinction 
of  one  of  the  contestants  involves  perpetual  revolu- 
tion. In  individual  behavior  and  ideals  this  is  per- 
ceived clearly  enough  when  confined  to  simple  things. 
There  is  no  middle  ground  between  truth  and  false- 
hood when  the  issue  is  simply  one  of  fact.  But  while 
Christian  conduct  is  not  a  simple  matter  and  is  largely 
based  upon  probable  reasoning,  the  question  of  alle- 
giance to  a  Christian  ideal  or  not  is  a  simple  matter 
that  can  be  determined  with  almost  mathematical  pre- 
cision. It  is  equivalent  to  the  civic  oath  of  allegiance. 
Such  an  oath  does  not  prescribe  a  standard  of  citizen- 
ship nor  define  all  the  duties  of  the  citizen.  It  merely 
requires  that  there  shall  be  loyal  adherence  to  one 
master.  In  a  similar  way  Christ's  demand  for  dis- 
cipleship  calls  for  no  specific  declarations  of  policy  in 
personal  deportment  or  relations  to  mankind.  It  does 
indeed  declare  that  men  shall  be  governed  by  the  law 
of  love,  but  how  that  law  shall  be  applied  and  with 
what  variations  of  force  or  method  must  be  left  to  the 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity     19 

individual  judgment.  Every  attempt  to  require  uni- 
form standards  has  failed.  No  such  requirement  is 
ever  likely  to  succeed.  But  there  is  no  such  latitude 
in  the  question  of  the  acceptance  of  the  law  of  love 
itself.  The  individual  accepts  it  or  rejects  it.  That 
is  a  simple  and  thoroughly  intelligible  transaction. 

Now  the  acceptance  of  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule 
of  life  is  a  revolutionary  performance.  There  may  be 
many  moments  of  confusion  as  to  the  practical  ex- 
pression of  the  law,  but  as  to  the  finality  of  the  law 
itself  there  can  be  no  confusion.  The  earliest  and 
the  latest  disciples  of  Christ  have  seen  this  with  equal 
clearness.  For  the  earliest  it  frequently  meant  per- 
secution and  death.  It  has  meant  the  modern  equiva- 
lent for  these  things  for  the  later  disciples  in  not  a 
few  cases.  The  man  who  makes  the  law  of  love  his 
rule  of  life  is  ipso  facto  a  revolutionist  in  modern 
society.  In  spite  of  the  vast  philanthropies  of  our 
modern  world  he  knows  that  it  is  possible  to  have  all 
these  things,  and  be  without  love.  He  knows  that 
vast  professional  and  personal  sacrifices  are  possible 
without  love.  He  knows  that  enormous  learning  is 
possible  without  love.  His  demand  penetrates  for 
himself  and  for  all  individuals  deeper  than  any  philan- 
thropy or  any  institutional  service.  He  knows  that 
many  a  man  can  give  his  body  to  be  burned  and  have 
not  love.  The  demand  of  love  exceeds  every  one  of 
these  things.  He  must  therefore  seem  to  the  mass 
of  men,  who  point  to  good  works  of  various  kinds  to 
schools,  hospitals,  libraries,  research  foundations  and 
the  like  to  be  a  fanatic  who  cannot  see  the  Christian 


20    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

spirit  actually  at  work.  Yet  he  is  right  and  they  are 
wrong.  There  is  not  a  syllable  in  the  gospels  which 
can  for  one  moment  justify  the  substitution  of  insti- 
tutional philanthropies  however  great,  or  charities 
however  wide  and  helpful,  for  the  personal  self-sub- 
jection to  the  law  of  love.  That  the  genuine  disciple 
of  Christ  is  a  revolutionary  is  absolutely  beyond  ques- 
tion. There  is  nothing  in  the  world  so  exacting,  so 
penetrating,  so  intolerant  of  any  substitution  of  a 
spurious  for  the  real  thing,  as  the  love  required  for 
discipleship  of  Christ. 

Nor  does  this  conception  involve  a  pharasaic  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  the  true  disciple.  He  asks  noth- 
ing for  himself  having  already  made  the  supreme 
sacrifice.  He  wants  no  rewards,  he  fears  no  penal- 
ties. He  has  made  the  revolution  successfully  in  his 
own  heart  and  will  and  cannot  profit  in  the  slightest 
degree  by  sitting  in  judgment  on  his  fellow  men. 
But  he  cannot  blind  himself,  being  in  the  light,  to  the 
darkness  round  about  him.  Seeking  righteousness 
himself  under  the  rule  of  love  he  must  simply  demand 
from  all  others  what  he  has  done  himself.  He  has  lost 
his  life  to  save  it  and  he  sees  that  there  is  no  other  way. 
There  is  no  truer  test  of  the  validity  of  discipleship 
than  this  recognition  of  the  revolutionary  effect  of 
genuine  Christianity.  It  is  this  fact  which  accounts 
for  the  separative  nature  of  Christianity.  Those 
branches  of  the  Christian  church  which  have  empha- 
sized it  most,  even  though  it  has  been  merely  by 
separative  symbols  and  signs,   have  flourished  most 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    21 

because  the  revolutionary  character  of  the  gospel  was 
thus  kept  clearly  in  mind.  The  symbols  and  the  signs 
have  often  and  indeed  usually  are,  foolish,  intolerant 
and  unjustifiable.  But  the  fact  to  which  they  owe 
their  existence  is  unmistakably  written  on  every  page 
of  the  New  Testament. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  decline  of  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  Christian  and  the  non-Christian  in 
modern  life  has  had  a  significance  far  greater  than  is 
commonly  supposed.  Modern  Christianity  has  gal- 
lantly tried  to  permit  its  disciples  to  keep  as  many  of 
the  enjoyments,  delights  and  indulgences  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  as  it  ppssibly  could,  without  seeming  to 
endanger  the  Christian  discipleship.  For  this  reason, 
the  Christian  profession,  except  in  a  church,  has  be- 
come practically  worthless.  Nobody  would  think  in 
any  relation  of  life,  in  business,  poHtics,  public  serv- 
ice or  what  not,  placing  confidence,  to  the  extent  of 
influencing  decision  upon  membership  in  a  church. 
As  a  practical  fact,  no  church  member  would  think 
ordinarily  of  offering  such  membership  as  evidence  of 
moral  worth  or  trustworthy  character.  Even  less 
would  such  membership  be  offered  as  a  ground  for 
the  placing  of  deep  and  weighty  responsibilities.  The 
exactions  of  righteousness,  the  obedience  to  the  law 
of  love  as  a  rule  of  life  on  its  practical  side,  is  not 
even  inquired  of  in  most  churches.  Commonly,  ad- 
herence to  some  theological  statement  is  the  most  that 
is  required  and  the  candidate  would  probably  highly 
resent  any  inquiry  into  the  moral  quality  of  his  busi- 


22    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ness  relations,  or  his  professional  standards.  It  is 
enough  ordinarily  that  does  not  openly  violate  the 
statute  law. 

The  meaning  of  this  is,  that  for  much  of  the  mod- 
ern Christianity,  the  religion  of  Christ  has  lost  its 
revolutionary  character  and  is  therefore  not  Chris- 
tianity at  all.  It  ought  normally  to  be  possible  to 
select  a  Christian  employer  from  a  non-Christian  em- 
ployer on  the  testimony  of  the  majority  of  his 
employees.  It  ought  to  be  possible  to  distinguish  the 
operation  of  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life  in  an 
institution  where  a  thousand  people  are  employed, 
from  one  where  there  is  no  such  rule,  so  readily,  that 
the  waiting  list  for  places  in  the  Christian  establish- 
ment should  greatly  exceed  its  numbers.  But  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  not  only  does  no  such  distinction  exist, 
but  often  the  exact  reverse  is  the  case.  An  employer 
known  to  have  conspicuous  Christian  connections  is 
shunned  for  one  who  is  known  not  to  have  any.  Yet 
as  a  practical  matter,  there  could  be  no  more  direct 
and  immediate  method  of  testing  the  application  of 
the  law  of  love  as  a  rule  of  life.  But  it  is  a  perfectly 
safe  statement,  that  hardly  a  single  employer  would 
submit  to  an  examination  of  his  business  establish- 
ment and  methods  as  a  test  for  his  admission  to  the 
Christian  church.  Yet  such  a  test  would  be  more 
reasonable,  more  readily  made,  more  justly  applied 
and  fairer  from  every  possible  standpoint  than  to  ex- 
amine him  on  the  points  of  religion,  in  the  creed  which 
he  generally  accepts  or  its  biblical  or  theological 
soundness.     This  is  not  to  say  that  he  is  to  be  sub- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    23 

jected  to  inquisitorial  inquiries.  It  would  be  merely 
finding  out  what  the  concensus  of  judgment  among 
those  most  affected  is,  as  to  the  probability  that  his 
life  is  governed  by  the  law  of  love.  How  absurd  it 
is  to  ask  a  man  to  have  expert  theological  views  of 
religion  and  yet  not  be  willing  to  submit  to  interroga- 
tion as  to  his  ethical  relations  and  behavior! 

It  is  in  an  antithesis  like  this  that  the  revolutionary 
nature  of  Christianity  is  discovered.  The  truth  is 
the  New  Testament  gives  no  warrant  whatever  for 
the  ordinary  kind  of  examination  for  church  member- 
ship. It  gives  absolutely  every  kind  of  authority  for 
the  kind  suggested.  In  the  earliest  stages  of  Chris- 
tianity's development,  such  an  examination  was  made 
and  discipleship  involved  life  itself.  The  earliest 
followers  could  say  truthfully,  "  Lo,  we  have  left  all 
and  followed  Thee."  There  have  been  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  church  when  this  same  test  was  applied. 
But  in  general,  it  may  be  said,  that  when  Christianity 
became  identified  with  the  church  or  indeed  any  form 
of  institutionalism  its  essential  character  began  to  be 
obscured.  What  makes  a  celibate  priesthood  so  much 
more  powerful  than  a  married  clergy  is  that  the  out- 
ward symbol  of  renunciation  is  always  there.  The 
difference  between  the  celibate  and  the  married  min- 
ister is  always  clearly  in  view.  This  is  not  asserting 
that  a  celibate  clergy  is  the  best  kind  or  even  a  de- 
sirable kind.  It  is  asserting,  however,  that  in  prac- 
tise, such  a  clergy  has  always  and  will  always  be  more 
powerful,  until  the  revolutionary  nature  of  Christian 
discipleship  makes  the  differentiation  of  Christians 


24    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

from  the  rest  of  the  world  more  easily  discernible. 
In  other  words,  Christianity  must  recover  its  own 
conception  of  itself.  It  must  mean  a  revolution  for 
every  individual  who  embraces  it.  This  revolution 
will  take  on  as  many  forms  as  the  individuals  them- 
selves. But  it  will  be  a  genuine  revolution  in  each 
case  and  it  will  be  decisive  enough  to  make  the  indi- 
vidual thus  revolutionized  easily  distinguishable  in 
his  own  circle,  because  of  the  change  which  has  been 
wrought.  In  our  modern  life,  all  such  distinguish- 
ing features  in  personal  behavior  have  been  reduced 
^to  the  minimum,  where  they  have  not  been  obliterated 
altogether.  The  church  anji  the  world  are  so  much 
alike  that  they  have  no  line  of  demarcation. 

There  is  not  in  this  view  a  plea  for  asceticism. 
This  is  not  needful  to  the  accentuation  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  disciple  of  Christ  and  the  person  not 
so  obligated.  There  is  here  no  call  for  the  regalia  of 
penitence,  of  humiliation,  or  indeed  any  sort  of  public 
exhibition  of  the  believer.  Such  exhibitions  even 
were  they  proposed  would  be  discredited  at  the  outset. 
Nobody  believes  in  them  any  longer  and  they  form, 
merely,  in  so  far  as  they  exist,  the  ecclesiastical  play- 
things of  immature  spirituality.  But  there  are 
numberless  methods  by  which  such  differences  may  be 
made  manifest.  The  anxiety  of  a  merchant  to  main- 
tain his  credit  and  to  meet  his  responsibilities,  is  a 
vastly  more  complicated  thing,  per  se,  than  the  effort 
of  a  man  to  emphasize  his  Christian  character  should 
be.  The  latter  should  not  require  effort,  much  more 
extended  or  persistent  than  the  former.     But  the  mer- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    25 

chant  will  not  fail  of  the  former,  because  his  credit 
is  a  vitally  necessary  thing,  failure  to  preserve  it 
meaning  bankruptcy.  The  expression  of  Christian 
discipleship,  however,  not  being  attended  by  such 
immediate  results  and  Christian  discipleship  itself  not 
being  understood  as  involving  a  moral  revolution,  is 
neglected  and  finally  disappears.  Even  this  is  not  the 
worst  result.  The  very  capacity  for  its  expression 
disappears.  The  only  possible  meaning  of  this  is  the 
real  Christianity  itself  disappears  and  in  its  place  re- 
mains a  fetich  which  simply  persists,  if  it  persists  at 
all,  through  custom  or  want  of  interest  to  change. 

It  is  important  to  note  in  this  personal  revolution, 
which  is  the  only  genuine  evidence  of  Christian 
discipleship,  that  it  must  be  in  terms  which  the  non- 
Christian  can  understand.  This  is  the  reason  why 
religious  exhortations,  prayers,  ecclesiastical  exercises 
and  the  like,  interesting  and  valuable  in  themselves, 
have  no  evidential  value  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 
Do  not  the  hypocrites  the  same?  The  revolution 
must  be  in  forms  and  under  symbols  which  unaided 
human  nature  can  instantly  understand  and  assimilate 
and  which  bring  with  them  no  interrogations.  Feed- 
ing a  hungry  man  is  an  act  which  admits  of  no 
ambiguity  as  to  its  nature.  It  does  not  indeed  betoken 
the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life,  but  hunger  and 
want  of  food  can  be  immediately  correlated  as  cause 
and  effect.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  most  of  the 
Christian  virtues.  A  pledge  of  a  thousand  or  a  mil- 
lion dollars  has  no  such  evidential  value  as  the  giving 
of  a  cup  of  cold  water,  in  person.     Neither,  as  stated, 


26    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

may  have  any  Christian  quaHty  whatever,  one  being 
simply  pride  in  public  philanthropy  and  the  other  in- 
dulgence in  a  pleasurable  emotion.  But  one  can  be 
understood  as  a  personal  relation  which  the  other  can- 
not Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  this  personal 
relation  and  this  personal  expression  of  the  disciple- 
ship  of  love.  That  is  what  makes  it  so  revolutionary 
and  so  exacting.  That  is  the  one  thing  which  modern 
Christianity  finds  it  hardest  to  secure  from  church 
members.  That  is  the  reason  why  modern  Christian- 
ity has  so  few  tokens  that  give  it  authority  in  the 
minds  of  men. 

IV 

Emerson  remarks  somewhere  that  an  honest  man 
appearing  in  a  drawing  room  produces  an  effect  like 
that  of  a  bull  in  a  china  shop.  The  Christian  disciple 
being  an  honest  man  and  something  more,  produces 
the  same  dynamic  result  in  society.  As  all  the  shams, 
frauds  and  pretenders  instantly  fear  honesty,  so  all 
injustice,  privilege  and  wrong  fear  the  advent  of  the 
revolutionary,  who  has  made  the  law  of  love  his  rule 
of  hfe.  It  used  to  be  said  that  this  country  could  not 
persist  half  slave  and  half  free.  It  is  even  more  im- 
possible that  some  of  society  should  be  governed  by 
the  law  of  love  and  some  of  it  refuse  to  be  so  gov- 
erned. These  two  elements  as  we  have  seen  are 
engaged  in  a  war  of  extermination.  Having  tri- 
umphed in  the  individual,  the  law  of  love  seeks  other 
individuals  to  conquer  and  with  each  conquest  en- 
deavors to  extend  the  area  of  influence  and  authority. 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    27 

This  is  the  explanation  of  the  missionary  enterprises 
of  Christianity.  In  fact,  the  missionary  enterprises 
have  been  almost  the  sole  instrument  by  which  much 
of  the  Christianity  of  so-called  Christian  countries 
has  been  kept  alive.  It  gave  the  semblance  of  life  to 
what  was  really  dead.  It  offered  the  only  means  of 
expressing  a  Christianity  which  did  not  render  per- 
sonal service  at  home  and  did  not  affect  the  distinc- 
tions which  separated  Christians  from  the  rest  of  the 
community.  It  was  easy  enough  for  a  so-called 
Christian  in  the  United  States  to  give  his  money  for 
the  enlightenment  of  the  so-called  heathen  in  China 
or  Malaysia  while  he  himself  at  home  had  not  one 
single  distinguishing  characteristic  that  differentiated 
him  from  the  heathen  mass  at  home.  This  substitu- 
tion of  the  missionary  contribution  for  the  personal 
service  offered  the  easy  and  natural  method  for 
avoiding  the  demands  upon  his  personal  reformation 
of  life,  silencing  the  voice  of  criticism  and  preventing 
the  severer  demands  of  genuine  Christianity  at  home 
from  being  made. 

It  did  more  than  this.  It  paved  the  way  for  the 
elimination  of  the  stern  requirements  of  personal 
revolution  and  through  this,  held  up,  within  the 
church,  the  movement  of  social  revolution  which  is 
inevitably  bound  up  with  personal  revolution.  When 
any  individual  or  group  of  individuals  once  sets  up  a 
higher  standard  than  the  prevailing  one  in  which  they 
move,  the  war  which  has  no  ending  has  begun.  But 
the  fixing  of  the  interest  on  foreign  lands  and  away 
from  the  problems  of  immediate  need  and  immediate 


28    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

sacrifice  did  not  merely  nullify  the  demand  for  actual 
Christian  discipleship  as  distinguished  from  the  nom- 
inal kind,  but  it  often  stifled  genuine  Christianity 
itself.  Missionary  activity  became  a  delightful  lux- 
ury of  the  well  to  do.  Resounding  contributions  and 
the  very  genuine  successes  of  Christianity  in  foreign 
lands,  where,  by  the  way,  Christianity  was  gradually 
forced  after  numberless  experiments  of  the  home  kind, 
to  adopt  the  New  Testament  method,  gave  a  beautiful 
semblance  of  loyal  and  devoted  adherence  to  the  law 
of  love  as  the  rule  of  life.  "  Are  we  not  sending  the 
gospel  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  earth?"  "Do 
we  not  obey  the  command  to  go  into  all  the  earth?" 
"  See  what  we  are  achieving  in  foreign  lands ! " 
Such  exclamations  and  questions  were  supposed  to 
close  the  question  entirely.  Meanwhile  the  church  at 
home  refused  to  look  at  the  failures  at  her  very  door. 
She  forgot  the  cries  of  the  hungry,  the  wails  of  the 
oppressed,  the  bondage  of  the  wage  worker  and  the 
helplessness  of  the  infirm,  until  genuine  Christianity, 
without  the  pale,  rudely  waked  her  up  with  violent 
criticism  and  bitter  assaults.  And  when  some  of  her 
choicest  spirits  were  found  to  be  among  those,  which 
the  enlightened  Christianity  outside  of  the  church 
pronounced  thieves  and  despoilers  of  humanity,  she 
helplessly  looked  on,  wondering  just  how  it  all  came 
about.  At  the  present  moment,  the  church  has  not 
gotten  much  farther  than  looking  around  rather 
helplessly  and  wondering  what  it  is  all  about! 

But  if  the  church  had  read  the  New  Testament  to 
any  purpose  she  need  not  have  been  surprised.     Per- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    29 

sonal  revolution  ultimately  means  social  revolution. 
A  bull  in  a  china  shop  means  broken  dishes.  Or  it 
means  a  bull  expelled  or  slain.  An  honest  man 
means  a  fight  wherever  he  comes  into  collision  with 
dishonesty.  It  is  not  pleasant  but  it  is  inevitable. 
A  Christian  disciple  in  the  presence  of  the  sin  and 
misery  of  the  world,  who  knows,  as  he  must  know, 
that  all  the  misery  of  the  world  is  directly  and  in- 
evitably allied  with  the  sin  of  the  world,  has  no  other 
alternative,  if  he  is  to  save  his  own  life,  but  to  in- 
augurate a  fight.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  choice.  To  be 
himself  he  must  fight.  All  genuine  disciples  have  had 
to  take  Luther's  attitude.  "  Here  I  stand,  I  can  do 
no  other.  God  help  me ! "  And  be  it  observed,  in 
passing,  that  this  attitude  is  not  that,  commonly  de- 
scribed, as  militant.  It  is  an  inevitable  thing  like  the 
battle  between  light  and  darkness.  Sin  and  right- 
eousness are  mutually  exclusive.  Only  casuists  and 
time  servers  can  find  a  twilight  zone  of  piety,  where 
sin  and  righteousness  can  co-exist.  Genuine  Chris- 
tianity recognizes  no  such  zone;  at  least  not  con- 
sciously. But  the  church  not  only  has  such  a  zone 
but  broadly  speaking  it  has  no  other.  The  "  peace 
of  the  church  "  about  which  so  much  praying  is  done 
and  which  means  in  practise  the  zealous  covering  up 
of  so  much  scandal,  dishonesty  and  double  dealing,  is 
really  the  abandonment  of  Christianity.  Christian- 
ity therefore  is  not  only  a  personal,  but  also  a  social 
revolution.  It  can  leave  nothing  alone.  Its  very  na- 
ture forbids  it  to  permit  anything  which  can  hinder 
the  individual  revolution  which  is  its  primary  essence. 


30    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Hence  it  is  socially  as  revolutionary  as  it  is  personally 
transforming.  This  is  not  denied  generally,  but  the 
method  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  "  gradual  permeation 
of  society  by  Christian  ideals."  This  would  be  satis- 
factory enough,  but  if  you  have  no  Christians  illus- 
trating Christian  ideals,  if  you  have  a  church  which 
makes  no  demands  that  its  members  shall  submit  to 
the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life,  if  your  conspicuous 
Christians  are  men  who  are  engaged  in  loathsome  in- 
dustries and  despotic  monopolies,  in  which  thousands 
of  helpless  human  beings  are  ground  to  powder  and 
lost  to  every  reasonable  conception  of  happy  and 
useful  existence,  how  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  true 
and  of  good  report  are  you  to  "  permeate  society  with 
Christian  ideals"?  Could  hypocrisy  go  further  than 
this?  Is  there  a  greater  illusion  possible  to  the  hu- 
man mind  than  that  you  can  regenerate  society, 
through  people  who  are  themselves  judged  by  every 
ordinary  standard  of  reason  and  insight  themselves 
unregenerate  ? 

"  By  their  fruits  shall  ye  know  them,"  is  the  indig- 
nant response  to  this  passionate  plea  of  the  man,  who 
is  really  under  the  law  of  love.  But  what  fruits? 
Hospitals,  schools,  libraries,  art  galleries,  philanthro- 
pies, what  do  all  these  signify  if  not  the  permeation 
of  society  by  Christian  ideals?  In  the  first  place,  it 
may  be  said  that  many  of  these  things  are  not  on 
Christian  foundations  nor  do  they  pretend  to  be.  In 
the  second  place,  we  have  arrived  at  a  point  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  world,  where  w^e  ask 
where  and  how  the  man  who  gives  a  million  dollars 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    31 

or  indeed  any  sum  whatever  to  charity  got  the  money. 
The  greater  his  gift,  the  more  anxious  we  are  to  in- 
quire as  to  its  source.  In  doing  this,  we  are  simply 
following  the  New  Testament  method.  Does  it  not 
seem  rather  foolish  to  give  adhesion  to  the  divine 
authority  of  the  narrative  in  the  book  of  Acts  in  which 
Ananias  and  Sapphira  sought  to  escape  a  just  appor- 
tionment of  a  church  tax,  according  to  an  agreement 
previously  entered  into,  and  then  look  with  indiffer- 
ence upon  the  tax  dodgers  and  other  avoiders  of  their 
just  share  of  social  burdens  especially  when  these  are 
supposed  to  be  under  Christ's  law?  Could  any  fool- 
ishness go  further  than  this?  But  let  no  man  say 
this  is  an  assault  upon  the  rich  merely.  The  rule 
follows  everywhere.  The  million  dollar  gift  gets 
newspaper  notice.  But  in  less  conspicuous  circles  a 
hundred  dollars  which  bears  the  same  general  relation 
to  the  giving  that  a  million  dollar  gift  does  to  a  greater 
mass  of  wealth,  is  scrutinized  with  hardly  less  eager- 
ness and  interest.  The  only  difference  is  that  we  do 
not  hear  about  it.  It  is  an  entirely  proper  attitude. 
When  men  prosper  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make  them 
conspicuous  among  their  fellow  men,  it  is  a  worthy 
ambition  to  know  what  there  is  about  them  that  makes 
them  so  successful.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  do  this 
freely  in  the  case  of  scholars  and  statesmen  and  in- 
ventors or  discoverers,  why  should  we  hesitate  about 
millionaires?  Money,  being  so  important  a  factor  in 
life,  representing,  as  it  does,  so  much  of  brain,  labor, 
skill,  invention,  aptitude,  ingenuity  and  the  rest,  its 
acquisition  is  a  matter  of  commanding  interest  to 


32    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

everybody  or  should  be.  Why  is  it  unreasonable  to 
inquire  how  this  or  that  man  became  possessed  of  his 
money?  Let  a  small  boy  come  into  his  gang  with  a 
dollar  bill  and  the  first  question  is  "  Where  did  you 
get  it?"  a  perfectly  natural,  just  and  reasonable  in- 
quiry. The  gang  may  presently  find  itself  involved 
in  an  arrest  for  stolen  money,  if  it  does  not  inquire! 
But  the  church  and  society  have  a  much  more  pow- 
erful motive  than  mere  curiosity  or  social  interest  to 
ask  these  questions.  It  wants  to  know  whether  this 
person  who  has  so  much  and  who  is  so  powerful  and 
influential  in  the  making  or  marring  of  human  life,  is 
operating  under  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life. 
It  is  forced  to  do  this  for  its  own  salvation,  because 
every  Christian  must  ask  it  of  himself,  every  group 
of  Christians  must  also  ask  it.  No  better  evidence  of 
the  abdication  of  genuine  Christianity  can  be  desired 
than  the  failure  to  ask.  But  this  means  revolution. 
Imagine,  if  it  is  possible  to  imagine  such  a  thing,  a 
man  of  wealth,  not  necessarily  a  millionaire  but  any 
man  conspicuously  well-to-do,  proposing  to  join  the 
church,  being  asked,  "  Are  your  business  methods 
such  as  can  be  reconciled  with  the  law  of  love  as  the 
rule  of  life?"  "Are  your  relations  with  your  em- 
ployees such  that  they  believe  that  your  membership 
in  this  church  is  the  act  of  a  sincere  believer  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man?  "  and  the  like !  Is  there  a  com- 
mittee in  this  land  that  would  dare  to  ask  these  ques- 
tions of  the  village  magnate  or  the  city  millionaire? 
And  yet  these  are  the  questions  which  the  New  Testa- 
ment   suggests    should    be    asked !     "  How    do    you 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    33 

reconcile  your  Christian  discipleship  with  membership 
in  a  corporation  which  is  under  criminal  indict- 
ment?" Is  not  that  a  pertinent  question,  for  a 
prospective  church  member?  And  would  it  not  be 
asked  if  a  man  under  indictment  for  burglary  were 
to  offer  himself?  Would  or  would  not  a  pastor  ask 
of  a  man  who  professed  himself  a  Christian,  while 
under  a  charge  of  arson,  "  How  do  you  explain  the 
fact  that  while  you  profess  yourself  a  disciple  of 
Christ  the  public  law  holds  you  for  setting  fire  to 
your  neighbor's  barn?  "  And  what  would  be  thought 
of  him  if  he  did  not  ?  But  would  he  be  equally  ready 
to  ask  the  holder  of  the  controlling  interest  in  a 
copper  mine,  where  there  had  been  bloodshed  and 
rioting,  how  he  explained  and  reconciled  these  mat- 
ters with  his  Christian  profession?  If  not,  why 
not? 

Such  a  proceeding  would  break  up  almost  any 
church  and  quite  naturally,  because  the  church  has 
long  ceased  asking  questions  of  practical  righteous- 
ness, because  the  church  no  longer  requires  the  per- 
sonal revolution  described  in  the  New  Testament  and 
hence  is  unprepared  for  the  social  revolution  which  is 
its  inevitable  consequence.  Such  a  demand  would 
instantly  be  branded  as  any  one  of  the  revolutionary 
doctrines,  with  which  the  world  has  been  flooded  and 
most  of  which  are  as  foolish  and  futile  as  the  wind. 
But  the  fact  would  be  that  it  was  something  much 
more  revolutionary  than  the  most  revolutionary  of  all 
social  doctrinaires.  It  would  be  Christianity,  trying 
to  utter  itself  in  the  modern  world.     It  would  be 


34    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Christian  discipleship  trying  to  get  back  to  its  original 
meaning  and  intent. 

The  case  is  not  different  when  we  look  at  the  other 
side  of  the  shield.  Suppose  that  a  conspicuous  leader 
of  labor  felt  himself  constrained  to  profess  Chris- 
tianity, that  is  to  make  the  law  of  love  his  rule  of 
life.  Suppose  him  to  be  questioned  thus,  "  How  do 
you  reconcile  speeches  which  incite  to  riot,  murder, 
dynamite  explosions  and  the  like  with  your  Christian 
profession?"  what  more  reasonable  inquiry  can  be 
imagined?  Yet  no  such  question  would  ever  be  put. 
To  the  credit,  at  least  of  the  intellectual  clarity  of 
most  of  the  labor  leaders,  it  may  be  said,  that  they  see 
this  thing  with  perfect  clearness  and  make  no  preten- 
sions to  being  under  the  law  of  love.  They  want 
what  they  call  justice,  which  means  ordinarily,  merely 
a  larger  share  of  the  spoil.  Given  supreme  control 
they  act  just  as  the  other  monopolists  do.  There  is 
no  essential  difference  between  them  judged  by  the 
law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life.  The  dynamiters" who 
blew  up  and  slew  innocent  people  from  one  end  of 
the  land  to  the  other  and  the  stock  manipulators  who 
rob  the  poor  of  their  innocent  investments,  are  all  of 
a  kind,  when  judged  by  the  Christian  law.  It  is 
extremely  difficult  viewing  these  various  malefactors 
through  the  eyes  of  Christ  to  see  any  very  great 
marks  of  difference.  The  simple  truth  is,  that  the 
law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life  is  non-existent  among 
them  all.  The  only  reason  why  the  condemnation 
falls  with  so  much  greater  force  upon  those  who  have 
the  wealth,  is  because  these,  for  the  most  part,  happen 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    35 

to  be  connected  with  the  church  and  profess  to  be 
under  the  law  of  love.  That  is  what  makes  them  the 
more  natural  targets  of  assault.  The  professional 
revolutionists  have  long  since  abandoned  the  church 
for  two  reasons ;  first,  because  they  did  not  themselves 
wish  to  be  judged  by  the  law  of  love  and  secondly, 
because  it  was  already  so  largely  mortgaged  to  their 
opponents.  But  the  moral  difference  between  these 
classes  is  entirely  negligible. 

From  this  condition  it  may  readily  be  seen  why  the 
church  has  had  so  difficult  a  task  in  finding  itself  on 
the  larger  questions  of  morals  and  life.  Having  lost 
itself  in  the  matter  of  personal  moral  revolution,  it 
had  nothing  by  which  to  recognize  and  measure  the 
larger  problems.  It  even  lost  to  a  great  degree  the 
power  to  estimate  its  own  condition.  This  is  the  rea- 
son why  church  discipline  has  almost  disappeared.  A 
church  of  to-day  would  probably  remove  from  its 
membership  a  person  who  had  committed  some 
flagrant  offense  which  was  a  matter  of  public  knowl- 
edge. But  if  it  did,  it  would  not  be  acting  because 
it  felt  itself  constrained  to  maintain  its  attitude  toward 
the  personal  revolution  required  and  everywhere  in- 
sisted upon  in  the  New  Testament.  It  would  be  be- 
cause it  was  brought  into  public  disrepute.  Its 
respectability  would  be  endangered  and  probably  its 
economic  status  would  be  injured.  But  beyond  this, 
there  is  no  Christian  discipline  and  the  reason  is  not 
far  to  seek.  "  Quisque  custodes  custodiatf "  Who 
shall  pronounce  upon  the  Christian  discipleship,  where 
the  idea  has  become  so  obscured  that  the  stockrigger 


36    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

and  the  industrial  despot  may  not  be  mentioned  with- 
out risk  of  a  church  convulsion?  Who  shall  speak, 
where  all  are  afraid?  or  who  shall  speak,  where  the 
standard  has  been  so  corrupted  that  no  one  can  read 
his  title  clear?  The  most  striking  fact  in  connection 
with  the  ecclesiastical  life  of  to-day  is  its  moral 
anemia,  due  to  just  these  causes.  But  it  is  not 
strange.  Its  demands  are  no  longer  moral.  Its  re- 
quirements are  no  longer  those  of  the  revolutionary 
Christ.  And  if,  to  these  facts  are  added  the  moral 
and  jfinancial  bondage,  often  represented  by  the  fact 
that  the  very  sanctuary  itself  is  built  upon  the  founda- 
tions of  iniquity  and  the  slaughter  of  innocents,  why 
should  any  one  heed  what  the  church  says  or  be  in- 
terested in  what  the  church  does?  August  Bebel,  the 
German  socialist,  was  opposed  to  Bismarck's  anti- 
catholic  laws  because  he  said  these  drove  the  catholics 
into  politics.  "  Let  them  teach  and  preach  anything 
they  please  in  their  churches,"  he  said,  "  nobody  goes 
to  hear  them."  "  But  in  politics  they  will  be  a  gen- 
uine force  with  which  we  have  to  deal."  So  indeed 
it  proved  and  the  laws  expelling  the  Jesuits  did  Ger- 
man Catholicism  probably  the  best  service  that  could 
be  rendered  to  it  at  the  time.  Of  course  the  laws 
were  ultimately  repealed. 

In  a  similar  way  the  theological  and  non-moral  or 
immoral  Christianity  has  no  interest  for  any  one. 
But  once  let  it  become  genuine  in  the  sense  in  which 
Christ  made  it  to  consist  in  the  law  of  love  as  the 
rule  of  life  and  something  revolutionary  will  take 
place.     The  old  formulas  will  not  do.     The  old  prac- 


The  True  Nature  of  Christianity    37 

tises  will  not  suffice.  The  mumblings  and  prattlings 
that  pass  for  religious  worship  will  instantly  sink  to 
their  true  level.  But  then  there  will  be  a  fight. 
Peace  in  the  conventional  sense  will  be  gone  forever. 
The  restless  quest  for  the  unattainable  law  of  love  as 
the  rule  of  life  begins,  and  to  that  search  there  is  no 
ending ! 


CHAPTER  II 
MIRACLES  OR  MONEY 


However  merciful  and  kind  and  valuable  the  works  of  the 
charitable,  and  the  efforts  of  those  who  would  raise  up  again 
the  pauper  and  the  vagrant,  they  are  not  remedial.  In  so  far 
as  the  work  of  the  charitable  is  devoted  to  reclamation  and  not 
to  prevention,  it  is  a  failure.  Not  that  any  one  could  wish  that 
less  were  done  in  the  direction  of  reclamation.  The  fact  only 
is  important,  that  effort  is  less  powerful  there  than  in  over- 
coming the  forces  which  undermine  the  workers  and  those  who 
are  struggling  against  insurmountable  difficulties.  It  is  an  almost 
hopeless  task  to  regenerate  the  degenerate,  especially  when,  if  the 
latter  are  to  succeed,  they  must  be  made  to  take  up  again  the 
battle  with  those  very  destructive  forces  which  are  all  the  time 
undermining  stronger,  more  capable,  and  more  self-reliant  men 
than  they. 

Robert  Hunter,  "Poverty." 


CHAPTER  II 

MIRACLES   OR   MONEY 


THERE  is  a  widespread  belief  that  the  earliest 
disciples  of  Jesus  were  also  creatures  like  the 
fictitious  Christ  of  dogmatic  religion,  persons  moon- 
ing through  the  world  looking  for  heavenly  visions 
and  dreaming  their  lives  away  in  contemplation  of 
other  worlds  than  the  one  in  which  they  lived  and 
moved  and  had  their  being.  But  the  record  of  the 
Book  of  Acts  seems  to  indicate  that  the  very  first 
thing  about  which  they  thought  was  property.  It 
seems  to  be  clear  that  impressed  with  the  serious  na- 
ture of  the  task  they  had  undertaken,  namely,  the 
subjugation  of  the  world  to  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule 
of  life,  they  were  equally  impressed  with  the  idea 
that  this  undertaking  required  some  sort  of  a  fiscal 
program.  They  accordingly  adopted  an  experiment 
which  at  this  distance  looks  like  pure  communism. 
They  had  all  things  in  common.  They  sold  all  that 
they  possessed  and  placed  the  receipts  in  a  common 
fund.  From  this  fund  they,  as  it  appears,  endeav- 
ored to  distribute  to  all  the  members  according  as  each 
had  need.  Thus  the  first  officers  apparently  were 
agents  of  distribution,  carrying  out  the  practical  pro- 

41 


42    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

gram  of  Christianity.  And  it  followed  naturally 
enough,  that  the  first  discipline  was  one  arising  from 
failure  to  meet  the  obligations  which  this  program 
imposed  and  the  first  differences  arose  from  the  same 
cause. 

This  is  most  interesting  because  it  indicates  that 
from  the  very  beginning,  important  as  certain  what 
might  be  called  dogmatic  or  credal  distinctions  were, 
they  nevertheless  promptly  yielded  to  the  more  press- 
ing demands  of  actual  life.  They  obviously  did  not 
expect  that  the  material  considerations  of  human  need 
were  to  be  met  by  miracle.  And  this  it  will  be  ob- 
served is  in  the  period  which  was  still  considered  the 
age  of  miracles.  But  whatever  the  expectation  of 
supernatural  intervention  and  provision  was,  it  was 
apparently  not  expected  to  apply  to  money! 

It  would  of  course  be  futile  to  expect  that  we  can 
reproduce  the  psychological  attitude  of  the  apostolic 
group  or  explain  how  they  reconciled  their  sublime 
beliefs  with  their  practical  sense.  The  important 
thing  is,  that  their  earliest  efforts  were  directed  to  a 
direct,  clearly  considered  and  practical  measure  which 
was  based  upon  the  idea  of  material  communism. 
That  the  experiment  failed  as  it  obviously  did,  and 
that  the  effort  had  no  successors  of  record  does  not 
alter  the  fact  that  they  made  the  first  one  or  that 
they  supplemented  the  possibilities  of  miracle  with  the 
practical  distribution  of  money.  They  hoped  for  the 
miracles,  but  they  could  see  the  money.  They  knew 
all  about  the  ravens  feeding  the  prophet  Elijah  but 
they  did  not,  on  that  account,  fail  to  appoint  persons 


Miracles  or  Money  43 

to  gather  and  administer  the  common  property  of  the 
brethren.  Their  heavenly-mindedness  was  supple- 
mented by  a  very  strong  conception  of  the  immediate 
needs  with  which  they  were  confronted.  Indeed, 
after  the  death  of  Jesus,  some  of  the  more  energetic, 
thought  the  natural  next  thing  to  do  was  to  resume 
their  old  occupations.  But  in  any  case  not  for  one 
single  instant,  so  far  as  we  can  now  discover,  did  they 
lose  sight  of  the  great  overmastering  fact,  that, 
though  man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  without 
bread  he  certainly  dies.  And  to  this  they  added  the 
equally  discerning  consciousness  that  to  get  bread, 
provision  has  to  be  made  for  it.  No  kindly  and  op- 
portune flock  of  ravens  was  expected  to  bring  food. 
No  manna  was  expected  to  fall  from  heaven  morning 
and  evening.  They  must  have  money,  and  to  get  it 
they  gathered  from  all  who  called  themselves  Chris- 
tians in  the  group. 

For  this  they  had  the  excellent  example  of  Christ 
himself.  The  only  official  of  the  small  company 
about  Christ  was  a  treasurer.  Whence  Judas  got  the 
money  he  carried  in  the  bag  is  not  recorded,  though 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  it  was  the  fruit  of  some  labor 
and  the  voluntary  contributions  of  fresh  accessions 
to  the  ranks  of  the  Christian  community.  But  as 
Jesus  went  about,  it  is  evident  that  the  supplies  were 
purchased  and  this  certainly  implies  money.  It  there- 
fore follows  that  the  Master  himself  had  definitely 
abandoned  the  theory  of  miraculous  supplies  for 
Himself  and  His  disciples.  With  the  most  unswerv- 
ing trust  in  the  Father,  with  unbounded  claims  to  the 


44    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Father's  paternal  oversight  and  care,  teaching  obedi- 
ence, faith  and  self-renunciation,  it  is  significant  that 
the  Master  did  not  accept  the  Elijah  theory  of  divine 
intervention  or  the  heavenly  supply  of  daily  manna, 
as  the  divine  method  of  supplying  the  needs  of  Him- 
self or  His  followers.  The  miracle  of  the  loaves  and 
fishes  in  no  way  affects  this  conclusion.  Whatever 
that  was,  it  was  not  the  rule.  The  regular  method 
surely  appears  to  have  been  one  of  purchase,  under 
ordinary  conditions,  by  a  person  regularly  appointed 
to  administer  that  part  of  the  affairs  of  the  small 
company.  It  was  therefore  perfectly  natural  for  the 
disciples  to  continue  a  practise  in  which  they  had  been 
taught  by  Christ  Himself.  Nor  had  anything  Jesus 
had  taught  on  the  subject  of  money  appeared  to 
modify  this  conclusion.  Various  persons  had  raised 
the  money  question  with  Jesus  and  He  had  met  it 
with  clearness  and  precision.  But  nothing  that  He 
said  apparently  made  His  followers  after  His  death 
suppose  that  they  were  to  make  any  raids  on  rich 
men  or  tax  anybody  for  their  support.  They  did 
expect  certain  things  from  those  who  called  them- 
selves the  followers  of  Christ,  and  these  things  they 
expected  with  an  intensity  and  determination  which 
is  very  impressive  even  at  this  distance. 

It  is  equally  clear  that  they  perceived  that  this 
money  question  was  not  a  purely  individual  affair. 
Brotherhood  meant  apparently  what  it  seems  to  mean. 
Withholding  one's  part  from  the  common  fund 
seemed  to  them  very  naturally  and  very  justly  worthy 
of  death.     They  gave  to  falsehoods  about  property 


Miracles  or  Money  45 

the  severest  name  possible,  namely,  "  lying  to  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Nothing  could  possibly  be  severer. 
That  seemed  to  smack  of  the  unpardonable  sin  and 
there  is  nothing  which  appears  in  the  New  Testament 
which  comes  nearer  to  defining  it  than  the  incident 
about  the  distribution  of  property  recorded  in  the 
Book  of  Acts.  And  it  is  perfectly  obvious  why  this 
should  be  so.  It  was  an  offense,  not  against  any  in- 
dividual but  against  the  entire  Christian  community, 
that  is,  against  the  essence  of  Christianity  itself,  which 
they  collectively  represented.  The  individual  sin  of 
greed  was  vastly  multiplied  when  it  became  the  com- 
munal sin  of  cheating  the  entire  church.  The  indi- 
vidual ceased  to  be  merely  acting  out  of  the  line  of 
Christian  behavior,  but  striking  at  the  foundation  of 
the  entire  Christian  life.  Hence  death  seemed  both 
natural  and  reasonable.  No  penalty  could  be  too  ex- 
treme for  an  offense  which  threatened  the  structure 
of  the  whole  church.  Nothing  therefore  could  indi- 
cate with  greater  definiteness  the  long  distance  which 
Christianity  has  traveled  from  its  foundations  than 
the  horror  with  which  such  a  suggestion  would  be  re- 
ceived now.  It  may  almost  be  said  that  Christianity, 
as  such,  takes  little  or  no  cognizance  of  communal 
sins  to-day.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  a  rising  sense  of 
obligation  toward  what  are  called  social  conditions, 
but  they  rarely  have  any  relation  to  the  personal  sense 
of  sin  on  the  part  of  those  who  hold  them.  All  such 
efforts  at  relief  or  melioration  of  communal  ills  are 
still  regarded  as  benevolence  and  as  evidences  of  ex- 
ceptional piety  and  devotion.     Property  has  not,  in 


46    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

any  practical  sense,  a  place  in  the  Christian  scheme 
of  religion  as  practised  to-day.  Of  course  it  is  talked 
about.  Of  course  there  is  a  great  deal  of  poetic  as- 
piration about  the  new  earth  wherein  righteousness 
shall  prevail,  but  it  does  not  have  any  relation  to  the 
Christian  administration  of  property. 

In  the  place  of  the  Christianization  of  property, 
modern  Christianity  is  still  talking  about  dogmas  and 
what  is  worse  has  taught  the  world  to  do  the  same  as 
will  presently  be  seen.  When  the  natural  difficulties 
of  the  problem  of  Christianizing  property,  as  well  as 
the  imported  antagonisms,  caused  the  first  experiment 
to  fail,  benevolence  was  substituted  for  duty  and 
dogma  took  the  place  of  money.  The  poor  and  needy 
were  taught  to  look  for  the  intervention  of  Heaven 
and  not  to  the  exactions  of  Christian  brotherhood, 
which  required  those  that  were  strong  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  those  that  were  weak.  The  weak  to  be 
sure  were  neither  forgotten  nor  neglected.  But  gifts 
to  the  poor  were  clothed  with  the  garments  of  sanctity 
and  whoso  gave  to  the  poor  was  lending  to  the  Lord, 
the  lending  being  interpreted  with  great  strictness, 
because  compound  interest  was  expected  in  the  shape 
of  everlasting  bliss  in  another  world.  A  doctrine  so 
comfortable  naturally  made  great  and  speedy  head- 
way. Human  nature  being  what  it  is,  could  not  hesi- 
tate to  accept  the  substitution  of  a  loan  institution, 
the  Lord  being  beneficiary,  for  "lying  to  the  Holy 
Ghost "  especially  when  the  loan  institution  was  so 
much  more  agreeable  and  its  exactions  trifling,  when 
compared  with  the  demands  of  brotherhood.     Hence 


Miracles  or  Money  47 

the  way  was  opened  in  which  the  brother  of  high  de- 
gree could  rejoice  with  the  brother  of  low  degree, 
without  sacrificing  his  superior  comfort,  his  larger 
possessions,  or  his  immunity  from  thinking  too  se- 
riously about  the  troubles  of  his  brethren  or  the  world. 
The  sanctification  of  property  was  thus  achieved  by 
a  simple  and  natural  method,  which  meant  comfort 
for  the  propertied  brother  and  organized  benevolence 
for  the  needy  disciple.  And  as  the  needy  disciple  was 
in  no  position  to  protest  seriously  enough  to  alter  the 
practise,  though  he  did  break  forth  occasionally  in 
terms  which  showed  that  he  did  not  like  the  bread  of 
charity  when  he  was  a  member  of  the  family,  the 
sacredness  of  property  became  a  fixed  idea. 

Thus  by  easy  stages  the  brother  of  low  degree  him- 
self was  indoctrinated  with  the  idea  that  the  dispenser 
of  the  bread  of  charity  by  which  he  lived  was  the 
agent  of  Heaven  and  chosen  by  the  Lord  for  earthly 
stewardship,  because  of  some  special  qualifications  for 
the  task.  The  contumacious  protestants  were  soon 
silenced  or  starved  and  the  very  idea  of  brotherhood, 
in  the  apostolic  sense,  perished  in  the  growing  sanctifi- 
cation of  property.  But  the  brother  of  high  degree 
shared  in  this  process  also.  He  came  to  believe,  as 
did  his  less  favored  brother,  that  Heaven  had  ordained 
these  inequalities.  He  took  his  possessions  as  an 
inheritance,  specially  designed  for  his  own  use  and 
conservation.  By  degrees,  his  stewardship  became  so 
seriously  grounded  in  his  own  mind,  that  he  felt  it 
needful  to  apply  his  critical  faculties  to  the  problem 
and  soon  he  took  it  upon  him  to  determine,  within 


48    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

himself,  as  a  court  of  final  jurisdiction,  whether  it 
was  worth  while  to  do  this  or  that  for  the  brother 
of  low  degree.  All  the  while  he  was  repeating  to 
himself  the  pious  phrases  and  the  New  Testament 
terms,  which  imply  brotherhood,  but  his  interpreta- 
tion of  these  terms  was  carefully  under  the  primary 
postulate,  that  property  is  sacred  and  that  community 
of  interest  is  a  spiritual,  not  a  material  thing.  When 
this  conclusion  had  been  attained  he  had  completed 
the  circle.  Hence  his  business  was  to  consider  the 
spiritual  interest  of  his  brethren  and  the  material  con- 
siderations became  wholly  secondary.  In  other  words 
he  relegated  his  humbler  brother  back  into  the  region 
of  Elijah  and  the  ravens  and  substituted  miracles  for 
money.  Spirituality,  of  course,  under  such  circum- 
stances naturally  became  dogmatic  obedience,  and 
presently  the  final  stage  was  reached,  miracles  having 
successfully  been  substituted  for  money,  benevolence 
was  equally  successfully  substituted  for  personal 
service. 

II 

The  natural  history  of  spiritual  responsibility  for 
other  people  is  a  very  interesting  story.  Responsibil- 
ity for  one's  self  is  interesting  enough  but  so  full  of 
prosaic  areas  that  a  large  part  of  man's  activity  is 
spent  in  getting  away  from  it.  The  sin  and  vice  of 
the  world  have  been  explained  by  some  social  stu- 
dents and  latterly  by  psychological  analysts,  as  merely 
the  effort  of  people  to  get  away  from  the  prose  of 
personal  responsibility   for  one's  own  behavior  and 


Miracles  or  Money  49 

character.  But  whether  this  is  the  case  or  not,  it  cer- 
tainly is  true  that  such  departures  from  the  prose  path 
of  duty  into  the  poetic  realism  of  sin  and  vice  have 
usually  had  their  own  natural  results,  and  the  final 
disposition  of  the  matter  usually  brought  the  moral 
excursionist  home  to  himself,  and  he  found  that  he 
had  not  gotten  very  far  from  his  own  fireside  after 
all.     The  responsibility  remained  with  him  to  the  end. 

But  it  never  occurred  to  these  interesting  persons 
that  they  were  pioneering  for  the  good  of  the  world. 
They  never  thought  while  the  sin  was  at  its  gayest,  or 
the  vice  at  its  most  thrilling  point,  that  they  were 
saviors  of  the  world  and  vice-gerents  of  the  Almighty ! 
They  have  left  us  no  literature,  unless  the  literature 
of  remorse  and  penitence  may  be  so  considered,  which 
gives  any  impression  that  they  were  chosen  by  heaven 
for  this  task.  Occasionally  you  have  a  notable  pro- 
duction like  the  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine  or  the 
De  Profundis  of  Oscar  Wilde,  which  does  give  a  note 
which  the  world  may  well  heed  for  its  moral  health, 
but  neither  St.  Augustine  nor  Oscar  Wilde,  while  they 
were  enacting  the  materials  which  made  their  master- 
pieces possible,  thought  they  were  acting  under  divine 
inspiration  and  instructions.  This  is  the  important 
point  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  contrasting  these  eminent 
sinners  with  those  of  whom  we  are  now  about  to 
speak. 

But  the  Christian  church  after  the  sanctification  of 
property  had  been  achieved,  and  the  monied  minority 
found  themselves  placed  in  a  position  of  spiritual  re- 
sponsibility   for   their   less    favored   brethren,    when 


50    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

benevolence  had  been  successfully  substituted  for  per- 
sonal service,  accepted  with  zeal  and  in  extenso  their 
responsibility  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  those  whom 
Heaven  had  supposedly  given  into  their  charge. 
Now  spiritual  responsibility  has  some  very  interesting 
psychological  accompaniments.  It  gives  you  a  very 
pleasant  sense  of  superiority  which  is  a  lovely  thing 
to  have.  Nobody  who  has  ever  experienced  this  feel- 
ing (and  nearly  everybody  has)  can  fail  to  recognize 
it  and  wish  that  it  might  continue  forever.  It  deadens 
the  consciousness  of  your  own  sins.  It  keeps  your 
gaze  properly  directed  at  the  shortcomings  of  other 
people  than  yourself.  It  gives  your  outlook  an  ex- 
alted sense  of  concern  for  the  well  being  of  mankind, 
and  incites  to  vigorous  efforts  to  regulate, —  other 
people.  The  social  propagandists  who  are  now  try- 
ing to  regulate  everybody  and  everything  in  the 
heavens  above,  and  the  earth  beneath,  are,  without 
most  of  them  being  aware  of  the  fact,  the  logical  and 
spiritual  successors  of  the  persons  about  whom  we 
now  speak.  It  followed  very  naturally  that  the 
propertied  Christians  thus  moved,  set  about  express- 
ing their  responsibility.  How  should  they  do  it?  Of 
course,  being  spiritual,  the  entire  area  of  distribution 
of  money  and  property  was  at  once  automatically 
exempted  from  the  discussion.  Hence  it  must  take 
the  form  of  regulating  the  opinions  and  beliefs  of  the 
less  favored  and  the  outcome  was  —  dogma.  The 
notion  that  the  dogmatic  development  of  Christianity 
arose  from  a  series  of  profound  convictions  about 
theology,  is  a  pure  superstition.     The  entire  theolog- 


Miracles  or  Money  51 

ical  propaganda  arose  from  the  desire  to  be  spiritually 
helpful  and  hence  regulative  and  controlling,  on  the 
part  of  the  more  powerful,  for  and  over  the  weak 
and  this  took  the  form  of  putting  down  in  fixed  and 
set  terms  what  was  needful  to  gain  the  benevolent 
oversight  and  assistance  of  the  controlling  group. 
As  the  hierarchy  developed,  the  extension  of  control 
and  definition  of  the  required  submission,  grew  more 
and  more  precise  and  every  emergency  called  out  fresh 
definitions  and  set  new  boundaries  or  limitations  on 
the  part  of  the  submitting  group.  The  hierarchy 
itself,  of  course,  was  but  the  instrument  of  the  prop- 
erty-possessing group  and  had  no  other  function  but 
to  register  its  will.  Sometimes,  to  be  sure,  the 
hierarchy  was  strong  enough  to  raise  the  question  of 
strength  as  between  itself  and  the  monied  brethren, 
but  not  often  and  never  for  long.  And,  on  the  whole, 
it  was  easier  in  any  case  to  give  the  hierarchy  what 
it  wanted  and  be  left  free  for  the  larger  worldly  en- 
terprises in  which  the  possessors  of  the  world's 
property  wished  to  engage.  Thus  was  built  up  the 
entire  framework  of  dogma  of  every  kind.  There  is 
nothing  resembling  dogma  in  the  Gospels,  nothing 
that  can  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  be  called 
dogma,  in  the  teaching  or  practises  of  Christ,  outside 
of  the  one  single  imperative,  all-compelling  require- 
ment, that  Christians  must  obey  the  law  of  love  as 
the  rule  of  life.  But  beyond  this,  all  application  of 
the  demand  was  left  for  the  Christians  themselves. 
But  they  must  give  unmistakable  evidence  that  this 
was  the  governing  principle  of  their  lives.     This  done. 


52    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

they  might  operate  in  any  fashion  suitable  to  their 
time  and  disposition.  Love,  it  was  assumed,  would 
find  a  way  and  it  usually  has.  Love  never  faileth, 
was  the  contention  and  nobody  can  truthfully  say 
that  it  ever  has.  Certainly,  those  who  have  tried  to 
conform  to  the  law  have  never  uttered  a  syllable  that 
gives  any  color  to  the  supposition  that  love  ever  does 
fail.  But  for  love,  the  poor  and  needy  were  given 
dogma.  They  were  given  government,  in  opinion 
and  hope,  direction  in  spiritual  thought  and  emotion, 
rigid  formulas  as  to  personal  behavior  and  from  all 
these  any  consideration  of  money  as  related  to  Chris- 
tian character  and  the  possession  thereof,  as  involving 
specially  large  obligations  under  the  law  of  love  as  the 
rule  of  life,  was  carefully  avoided. 

No  occupation  is  so  fascinating  as  that  which  looks 
toward  the  reconstruction  of  human  society,  especially 
if  it  leaves  the  reconstructor  untouched.  Who  can 
doubt  that  a  hierarchy,  no  matter  what  it  called  itself, 
convinced  that  it  was  called  by  Heaven  to  take  charge 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  itself,  therefore,  enabled 
to  employ  reasoning  and  to  assume  postulates  which 
were  denied  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  was  in  a  most 
comfortable  and  joyous  occupation?  Who  cannot 
see  that  such  a  hierarchy,  naturally  and  inevitably 
allied  to  the  most  powerful  elements  of  society,  fa- 
vored by  large  gifts  and  sustained  in  its  arbitrary 
rulings,  which  had  for  their  end  the  holding  in  proper 
subjection  the  less  favored  of  the  church,  must  first 
of  all  have  offered  an  almost  irresistible  appeal  for 
the  exercise  of  great  administrative  and  quasi-spir- 


Miracles  or  Money  53 

itual  ambitions,  and  in  the  second  place,  fallen  naturally 
and  again  almost  inevitably  under  the  rule  of  the  class 
which  supplied  it  with  its  great  instrument  of  power 
—  money  ?  There  is  nothing  strange  or  supernatural 
about  it,  unless  one  looks  at  the  almost  supernatural 
submission  on  the  part  of  the  masses  to  this  program. 
That  zuas  an  evidence  of  divine  power  —  the  power 
to  forget  all  natural  and  human  rights,  the  power  to 
forget  personal  and  spiritual  liberty,  and  most  divine 
of  all,  to  give  up  one's  daily  bread  for  the  favor  of 
a  group  which,  without  the  underpinning  of  a  vast 
submissive  majority,  could  not  possibly  have  come 
into  existence!  But  on  the  side  which  claimed  the 
divine  power  and  which  was  and  is  fond  of  setting 
forth  its  divine  authority,  there  is  nothing  that  can- 
not be  explained  by  purely  natural  causes.  The  de- 
velopment was  in  the  line  of  least  resistance  and  in 
fact,  resistance  was  almost  eliminated  from  the  start, 
because  the  one  instrument  by  which  a  difference  of 
opinion  could  be  successfully  arbitrated,  namely, 
money,  and  the  power  which  money  gives  —  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  start.  Christian  brotherhood  car- 
ried spiritual  rights  in  other  people,  but  none  in  their 
property,  except  as  a  matter  of  benevolence.  The 
Christian  brother  of  high  degree  granted  everything 
except  any  right  to  the  things  of  this  world,  land, 
goods,  houses,  and  the  things  which  naturally  flowed 
out  of  the  possession  of  these.  On  occasions  he 
ostentatiously  set  forth  his  adhesion  to  the  elementary 
principles  of  Christian  brotherhood  as  stated  by 
Christ.     But  he  never  meant  that  they  should  be  un- 


54    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

derstood,  nor  were  they  ever  understood,  as  altering 
in  the  slightest  degree  his  relation  to  the  things  which 
he  held  as  his  own.     That  is  the  important  point. 

It  may  be  asked  at  this  stage,  whether  this  brother 
of  possessions  did  not  feel  sometimes  that  something 
was  due  to  the  brother  of  lower  degree  for  the  earthly 
benefits  which  he  had  not  the  use  of,  and  the  response 
was  prompt  and  altogether  satisfactory.  He  was 
referred  to  the  compensations  and  the  delights  of 
another  world.  The  Christian  dives  was  perfectly 
willing  to  accept  torment  in  the  next  world,  if  he 
could  have  everything  he  wanted  in  this,  and  the 
brother  of  low  degree  was  taught  to  look  for  treasures 
in  Heaven,  and  to  Heaven  he  did  look.  In  other 
words,  he  was  given  miracles  for  money.  For  his 
natural  and  human  rights,  he  accepted  a  draft  on 
another  world,  which  was  to  be  cashed  in  that  world, 
while  he  accepted  poverty,  wrong  and  injustice  in 
this.  Nay,  more,  such  is  the  peculiar  psychological 
effect  of  this  method  of  indoctrination,  he  began  to 
be  proud  of  his  poverty  and  began  to  draw  invidious 
distinctions  between  himself  and  the  brother  of  high 
degree.  He  called  attention  to  the  poverty  of  Christ, 
and  loved  to  believe  that  his  own  poverty  constituted 
a  valid  and  visible  token  of  his  exceptional  fidelity  to 
Christ.  He  talked  contemptuously  about  wealth  and 
the  luxuries  which  wealth  begot.  It  was  and  is  an 
interesting  spectacle.  And  it  was  wholly  satisfactory 
to  the  brother  of  high  degree.  So  long  as  it  inter- 
fered with  none  of  his  privileges  and  enjoyments,  so 
long  as  his  work  was  done  and  his  granaries  filled,  or 


Miracles  or  Money  ^^ 

his  factories  kept  running,  he  had  no  complaint  as  to 
the  fulminations  about  the  corruptions  of  wealth  and 
the  danger  of  the  rich  man,  when  he  tried  the  process 
of  getting  through  the  needle's  eye  of  pure  righteous- 
ness. He  even  made  contributions  to  furnish  these 
brethren  places  where  they  might  utter  these  convic- 
tions to  their  heart's  content,  without  his  presence. 
And  this  too  has  had  its  consequences,  for  by  easy 
stages  there  was  achieved  a  sort  of  segregation, 
though  that  is  not  what  they  called  it,  by  which  all 
embarrassing  contacts  were  removed. 

But  be  it  noted,  that  thus,  by  a  process  purely  nat- 
ural, not  at  all  difficult  of  explanation,  the  two  classes 
of  Christians  were  made  perfectly  clear  in  their  out- 
lines —  those  who  were  to  be  sustained  by  miracle 
and  those  who  were  to  depend  on  money.  It  is  not 
as  though  the  line  were  always  distinguishable,  be- 
cause people  were  always,  as  they  do  now,  passing 
from  one  side  to  the  other,  from  one  cause  or  an- 
other. When,  by  some  process,  the  poor  brother  be- 
came one  of  the  possessing  faction,  he  promptly 
discarded  the  theory  of  miracle  and  adopted  that  of 
money.  If  the  rich  brother  was  by  the  fortunes  of 
life  thrown  into  want,  he  took  up  the  discarded  doc- 
trine of  miracle  and  found  consolation  and  rejoiced 
that  though  it  was  hard,  he  had  at  last  found  the 
true  way!  Sometimes  he  even  came  to  think  of  his 
past  enjoyments  as  a  pictorial  moral  lesson  in  right- 
eousness, which  he  found  pleasure  in  portraying  to 
his  fellow  sufferers.  It  is  an  interesting  study  by 
itself  to  follow  these  movements  in  Christian  history. 


56    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

But,  broadly  speaking,  the  antitliesis  was  all  but  com- 
plete. The  poor  brother  was  assiduously  taught  to 
put  his  trust  in  Heaven  and  lay  up  treasures  in 
Heaven  and  take  the  rebuffs  and  injustice  of  the 
world  as  a  preliminary  to  his  future  dominion.  The 
rich,  comfortable,  well-fed  and  conscious  only  that 
life  was  pleasant,  satisfactory  and  without  any  ills 
except  those  of  their  own  seeking,  for  the  most  part 
accepted  the  doctrines  of  money.  And  for  centuries 
the  beliefs  and  practises  of  Christendom  can  be  dif- 
ferentiated between  those  which  have  their  confidence 
in  miracle,  that  is,  supernatural  control  and  govern- 
ment of  the  affairs  of  men,  with  permanent  injustice 
and  inequalities  ordained  by  Providence,  and  those 
which  have  their  root  in  the  conquest  of  the  earth 
and  its  resources,  the  building  up  of  human  power 
and  human  effectiveness,  through  strength,  comfort, 
health  and  every  other  quality  by  which  effective  hu- 
manity is  secured,  in  a  word,  the  things  which  money 
can  secure. 

Ill 

It  must  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  the  idea  of 
communal  responsibility  during  the  evolution  just  de- 
scribed absolutely  disappeared  from  the  consciousness 
of  the  Christian  church,  even  though  in  practise  the 
communal  idea  was  well  nigh  extinct.  Nothing  could 
prevent  the  terminology  of  the  New  Testament  and 
its  ideas  from  occasionally  being  taken  at  their  face 
value.  Here  and  there  individuals  and  groups  did 
take  them  at  this  valuation  and  try  to  put  into  prac- 


Miracles  or  Money  57 

tise  what  their  rehgion  seemed  to  demand.  This  is 
not  the  place  to  set  forth  the  history  of  these  experi- 
ments, except  to  state  that  they  did  occur  and  with  a 
certain  regularity,  which  might  have  predicted  to  the 
discerning  that  the  time  would  come  when  the  ques- 
tion would  have  to  be  fought  out  on  its  merits.  Be- 
cause of  these  experiments  there  was  always  in  the 
background  of  all  Christian  assemblies  the  feeling 
that  the  root  of  the  matter  was  not  being  touched. 
The  chasm  between  the  prosperous  and  the  needy  grew 
steadily  wider,  and  while  almost  every  social  advance 
was  claimed  as  the  result  of  Christian  teaching,  and 
was,  in  fact,  very  considerably  due  to  this  teaching, 
nevertheless  the  growth  of  the  human  mind  and  the 
discovery  of  new  lands  and  new  treasures  of  the  earth 
had  a  very  large  part  in  the  advance  also.  The  earth 
was  really  too  large  for  so  small  a  minority  to  pos- 
sess, as  seemed  to  control  it.  The  partnership  of  the 
well-to-do  had  to  be  extended,  almost  perforce,  al- 
though as  fast  as  this  class  was  increased,  they  adopted 
the  ideas  and  the  practices  indicated  and  left  the  funda- 
mental question  untouched.  Possession  has  this 
magic  effect  upon  the  mind  of  him  who  has  it  and 
laws,  i*  :titutions  and  the  fabric  of  civilization  gen- 
erally were  steadily  indoctrinated  with  the  idea  of  the 
immunity  of  property  from  the  serious  operations  of 
the  religious  ideal.  But  as  stated  the  idea  did  not  die, 
as  indeed  it  could  not,  because  the  demands  of  benev- 
olence accelerated  with  such  force,  that  there  began 
to  be  a  shrinking  from  the  duty  of  meeting  them. 
Gratifying  as  benevolence  was  to  those  who  admin- 


58    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

istered  it,  they  very  soon  found  that  accepted  as  a  per- 
manent rule,  it  increased  with  enormous  strides.  And 
once  benevolence  is  withheld,  where  you  have  in- 
structed the  beneficiaries  of  it  that  it  has  been  your 
duty  to  supply  it,  there  arise  not  merely  uneasy,  but 
ugly  feelings.  Moreover  people  who  are  in  dire  need 
and  who  see,  side  by  side,  great  opulence  and  great 
poverty,  are  not  particularly  careful  in  the  language 
or  measures  they  employ  to  rid  themselves  of  press- 
ing and  urgent  necessity.  Hunger,  misery  and  unre- 
lieved pain  are  tremendous  agents  to  aggressive 
thought.  If  you  want  a  man  to  stop  thinking  over- 
feed him.  But  if  you  want  him  to  think  very  hard, 
underfeed  him,  and  if  once  his  underfeeding  becomes 
linked  with  the  idea  that  his  want  of  food  is  connected 
with  the  overplus  which  he  sees  in  the  hands  of  some- 
body else,  there  is  created  the  material  for  a  first  class 
revolution.  And  if  to  this  material  you  have  the  oft 
repeated  statements  on  the  part  of  the  very  people  who 
have  this  abundance,  that  they  are  the  trustees  ap- 
pointed by  Heaven  to  administer  for  the  poor,  there 
arises  at  once  the  question,  "  Why  doesn't  the  trustee 
administer  ?  " 

Now  this  is  exactly  what  happened.  The  earliest 
movements  for  social  reformation  arose  out  of  prac- 
tical facts  just  like  these.  The  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion is  commonly  supposed  to  have  been  a  theological 
revolt.  In  fact,  it  was  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  only 
became  that,  because  the  ecclesiastical  machine  took 
the  side  of  the  prosperous  against  the  emerging  poor. 
The  earliest  reformers  were  social  reformers.     The 


Miracles  or  Money  59 

English  reformers  were  notably  so.  But  the  conti- 
nental reformers  were  not  far  behind  them  because 
their  reforms,  though  mainly  known  as  theological, 
grew  out  of  the  practical  social  exigencies  of  the  pas- 
torate in  which  most  of  them  were.  It  is  now  per- 
fectly clear  that  without  the  tremendous  social  and 
economic  pressure  behind  them,  the  reformers  would 
have  made  no  headway  whatever.  Underneath  and 
about  them  was  the  enormous  mass  of  misery,  degra- 
dation and  ignorance  and  above  all  want.  The  doc- 
trine of  miracle  had  done  all  that  it  possibly  could. 
But  it  was  found  that  food  did  not  come  by  miracle. 
Miracle  did  not  give  justice  in  the  courts  and  miracle 
did  not  provide  a  just  distribution  of  the  products 
of  the  soil.  Hence  miracle  broke  down!  And  for 
alternative  there  was  nothing  but  to  attack  property. 
This  has  been  the  story  in  every  land,  of  every  theo- 
logical or  ecclesiastical  revolt  of  which  we  have  any 
record.  Naturally  enough,  the  assault  took  its  first 
form  in  an  attack  on  ecclesiastical  revenues,  and  this 
is  the  reason  why  it  has  generally  been  supposed  to 
have  been  a  theological  matter.  But  it  was  not  this 
at  all.  Ecclesiastical  revenues  were  the  most  con- 
spicuously unproductive  and  idle.  They  were  those 
whose  recipients  seemed  to  be  least  useful  in  the  mat- 
ter of  alleviating  the  general  and  universal  need.  Lux- 
ury-loving bishops  and  full-fed  ecclesiastics  every- 
where visualized  most  clearly  the  contrast  between  the 
simplicity  of  Christ  and  the  utter  worldliness  of  the 
representatives  of  Christ.  Hence  the  attack  on  these. 
It  was  again  the  most  natural  and  normal  method  of 


6o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

getting  at  the  problem  in  hand.  Attacks  upon  the 
church  and  church  property  and  possessions  had,  by 
the  way,  eminent  sanction  in  certain  rulers  and  civil 
powers  who  periodically  showed  by  their  own  raids, 
first  how  rich  the  spoil  was,  and  secondly,  that  it  could 
be  raided  without  seeing  the  heavens  fall  or  the  raiders 
struck  down  by  the  lightnings  of  divine  wrath.  It 
needed  only  a  few  such  demonstrations  to  indicate  to 
hunger-stricken  men  where  the  line  of  least  resistance 
actually  was,  and  it  did  not  take  many  demonstrations 
of  their  own  to  prove  to  them  that  the  panic-stricken 
ecclesiastics  were  not  the  special  favorites  of  Heaven. 
But  the  attack  on  property,  especially  ecclesiastical 
property,  had  an  effect  much  more  important  than  the 
separation  of  the  church  from  its  money.  It  caused 
the  whole  fabric  to  be  investigated  and  the  doctrines 
upon  which  it  rested  to  be  studied,  and  what  is  even 
more  to  the  purpose,  to  be  compared  with  the  biblical 
teachings.  Then  the  end  was  surely  in  sight,  and  it 
was  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  downfall  of  the 
prevailing  social  order  would  appear.  The  intellec- 
tual liberation  was  much  the  more  important,  because 
it  showed  that  the  system  itself  was  fundamentally 
wrong.  And  this  discovery  immediately  caused  a 
movement  all  along  the  line,  which  began  to  affect 
every  branch  of  the  social  body.  Government,  as  well 
as  church,  came  into  this  searching  inquiry.  Human 
rights  began  to  be  argued  and  startling  claims  began 
to  be  uttered,  which  only  needed  to  be  uttered  to  in- 
dicate their  essential  soundness  and  especially  their 
biblical  character.     Men  began  to  ask  whether  the  New 


Miracles  or  Money  61 

Testament  meant  what  it  said.  Whether  Christian 
brotherhood  did  or  did  not  mean  what  it  naturally  ap- 
peared to  mean  and  out  of  these  interrogations  the 
entire  modem  social  fabric  has  been  reared.  But 
thought  once  aroused  in  this  direction  never  stops. 
The  psychological  process  which  caused  the  prosper- 
ous to  assume  naturally  that  they  were  chosen  by 
Heaven  for  the  task  of  administering  the  good  things 
of  the  earth,  was  almost  identical  with  that  which  took 
possession  of  those  who  thought  they  were  called  to 
restore  the  old  doctrine  taught  by  Christ  and  knowing 
no  other  method,  they  employed  exactly  the  methods 
which  the  others  had  employed.  As  the  one  had  in- 
creased in  wealth,  the  other  increased  in  violence. 
With  the  growth  of  wealth  and  power  on  the  one  hand, 
advanced  the  disposition  to  pass  judgment  and  issue 
final  decrees  on  everybody's  right  to  live.  On  the 
other  side  there  was  first  the  vigorous  assertion  of  in- 
justice, then  the  assault  upon  ecclesiastical  property, 
then  the  revolutions  in  government  and  legislation, 
with  all  the  pleasant  incidents  of  chopping  off  heads, 
burning  down  palaces,  and  otherwise  emphasizing  the 
pent-up  nature  of  the  prevailing  wrath  and  rage,  and 
finally  ending  up  with  the  denial  of  the  right  of  all 
private  ownership.  This  is  about  where  we  stand 
to-day.  The  only  reason  why  it  is  not  accompanied 
with  the  violences  of  other  centuries,  is  because  the 
emerged  masses  have  learned  how  to  use  the  legisla- 
tive and  governmental  machinery  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  spoliation,  which  formerly  was  accom- 
plished by  fire  and  sword.     But  the  process  is  the 


62    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

same.  The  laboring  masses  to-day  are  not  engaged  in 
seeking  justice,  though  they  use  these  phrases  in  ex- 
actly the  same  way  in  which  the  Dives  cult  uses  the 
terminology  of  Christian  brotherhood.  Actually 
there  is  little  choice  between  the  two  in  the  matter  of 
the  cant  terms  they  employ.  The  truth  is  that  the 
emerged  masses  are  engaged  in  a  huge  war  of  spolia- 
tion frankly  and  without  illusions.  The  struggle  for 
social  justice  so-called,  once  a  real  and  a  vital  yearn- 
ing for  the  pure  breath  of  heaven  in  freedom  and 
peace  and  contentment,  though  not  in  plenty,  is  to-day 
very  considerably  a  revengeful  lust  for  the  spoliation 
of  those  who  are  prosperous.  No  amount  of  hypo- 
critical cant  can  disguise  this  fact.  Many  and  sincere 
are  the  leaders  who  have  social  and  every  other  kind 
of  justice  earnestly  at  heart.  Serious  and  anxious  are 
thousands  of  earnest  and  honest  and  prayerful  men 
who  want  to  see  brotherhood  among  men.  But  no  one 
who  has  his  eyes  open  or  who  sees  these  questions, 
as  they  relate  to  ultimate  happiness  with  an  unbiased 
vision,  can  fail  to  see  that  a  large  fraction  of  the  en- 
tire mass  which  makes  up  the  demand  for  social  jus- 
tice is  morally  as  rotten  and  as  foul  as  has  been  and 
is,  that  which  glibly  talks  about  trusteeship  derived 
from  Heaven  and  takes  the  polluted  dividends,  gotten 
out  of  the  life  blood  of  women  and  children. 

The  only  genuine  difference  between  the  demand  of 
the  emerging  group  and  the  intrenched  group  seems 
to  be  this  —  the  latter  still  holds  the  religious  termin- 
ology which  the  former  cannot  use,  first  because  its 
use  is  already  preempted  and  second,  because  it  sees 


Miracles  or  Money  63 

its  aim  more  frankly  and  announced  it  more  unblush- 
ingly.  This  is  why  the  church  was  the  inevitable  tar- 
get of  the  social  reformer.  But  it  deserved  all  that 
was  directed  toward  it,  and  it  deserves  much  of  what 
it  receives  in  the  way  of  criticism  and  assault  to-day. 
But  it  is  not  generally  seen  that  the  change  in  the  cler- 
ical position  from  one  of  authority  and  influence,  to 
one  of  mendicancy,  tempered  by  benevolence,  has  com- 
pletely changed  its  status.  The  very  clergy  them- 
selves to-day  are  bone  and  sinew  of  the  emerging 
classes.  They  do  not  know,  nor  have  most  of  their 
ancestors  for  the  most  part  known,  anything  of  the 
prosperous  classes  except  to  be  their  servants  and  ben- 
eficiaries. Most  of  them  have  still  clinging  to  them 
the  cerements  of  the  doctrine  of  the  sacredness  of 
property  and  are  bound  by  it,  but  on  the  whole,  it  is  as 
silly  to  attack  the  church  to-day  for  its  position  upon 
the  social  question,  as  it  would  be  to  attack  a  little 
child  for  the  sins  of  Its  father.  The  church  is  no 
longer  one  of  the  dominant  forces  of  modern  society. 
It  is  here  still  and  will  probably  remain  forever.  It 
will  become  one  of  the  dominant  forces  of  society 
again.  But  at  the  present  moment,  to  suppose  that  the 
churches  of  this  land  hold  a  strategically  important 
place  in  the  arbitrament  of  human  rights,  or  have  a 
vital  influence  in  the  regulation  of  human  destinies  is 
pure  superstition.  It  is  no  longer  the  custodian  of  its 
own  Gospel.  It  holds  no  longer  the  primacy  of  inter- 
pretation which  was  once  its  main  asset.  It  no  longer 
contributes  to  society  its  conspicuous  models  of 
purity  of  life  or  loftiness  of  self  sacrifice,  by  which  it 


64    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

once  thralled  the  imagination  and  held  the  abiding 
love  of  mankind.  It  will  do  these  again  some  time. 
But  it  is  not  doing  them  now.  The  reason  is  per- 
fectly simple,  it  still  stands  for  the  doctrine  of  miracle, 
as  against  the  doctrine  of  money.  It  cannot  go  over 
to  the  doctrine  of  money  without  denying  itself.  It 
cannot  hold  to  the  doctrine  of  miracle  without  assum- 
ing the  vast  load  of  responsibility  for  a  social  order 
with  which  it  must  necessarily  be  at  war.  At  the  mo- 
ment, it  seems  to  be  unable  to  turn  either  to  the  right 
hand  or  the  left.  It  has  neither  the  respect  of  the 
rich  nor  the  love  of  the  poor.  It  has  failed  mankind 
in  one  of  its  most  crucial  and  trying  moments  of  need. 
When  it  comes  back  to  influence,  as  it  certainly  will, 
because  it  has  the  recuperative  power  of  having  within 
it  the  imperishable  truths  of  Christ,  and  has  now,  as 
always,  its  saving  remnant,  it  will  come  back  by  the 
laborious  process  of  service,  the  hard  and  thorny  road 
of  toil  and  humiliation. 


CHAPTER  III 
RELIGION  AND  TAXATION 


The  existence  of  pauperism  and  of  prevailing  poverty,  in  con- 
trast to  the  progress  of  wealth,  must  be  made  to  weigh  upon  all 
men's  consciences,  especially  on  those  of  the  ruling  classes ;  and 
no  effort,  no  change  that  can  be  suggested,  can  be  too  great, 
if  it  results  in  the  wiping  away  of  this  reproach  to  our  Christian 
state.  //  is  not  by  dealing  with  pauperism  and  with  poverty  in 
their  actual  manifestations  that  this  reproach  will  be  wiped  away, 
but  much  more  by  such  a  direction  of  political  interests  as  will 
operate  through  law  and  administration  for  the  removal  of  the 
evil  and  the  further  framing  of  laws  not  merely  to  make  men 
equal  before  the  law  but  so  as  to  afford  the  poor  and  the  weak 
the  uplifting  help  which  they  need.  .  .  .  There  are  men  who 
have  worked  upon  the  principle  that  economic  science  must  not 
be  contented  with  merely  tracing  a  law,  but  must  minister  to 
the  corresponding  art  of  social  well-being,  that  it  must  show 
how  to  apply  its  principles  according  to  the  wants  of  the  com- 
munity, and  must  acknowledge  the  paternal  care  for  the  weak, 
and  even  the  necessity  at  certain  times  of  giving  them  a  dead 
lift,  to  place  them  in  a  position  in  which  they  can  use  economical 
principles  for  their  own  advantages.  When  this  is  done  in  a 
truly  Christian  spirit,  the  conditions  which  political  economy 
reveals  may  be  the  light  by  which  we  walk  in  the  path  of 
Christian  benevolence,  and  the  nation  may  become  the  channel 
of  God's  beneficence  to  all  its  members. 

Fremantle, 
"  The  World  as  a  Subject  of  Redemption." 


CHAPTER  III 

RELIGION   AND  TAXATION 
I 

IT  will  doubtless  be  received  with  something  like 
incredulity  to  be  told  that  there  is  any  religion 
in  taxation  but  reflection  will  show  that  there  is  a 
connection  between  these  things,  which  at  first  glance 
seem  so  unlikely  to  have  any  relation  which  is  of  the 
greatest  possible  importance  both  to  the  subject  of 
religion  and  also  to  that  of  taxation.  For  let  it  be 
understood  at  the  outset  that  a  tax  is  itself  the  symbol 
of  some  sort  of  collectivism.  Even  when  it  takes  the 
crudest  and  least  attractive  form  of  brute  tribute, 
gathered  by  force,  it  nevertheless  emphasizes  a  cer- 
tain sort  of  relationship  between  the  spoiler  and  the 
spoiled.  For  the  despoiler  who  once  enriches  himself 
at  the  expense  of  some  one  else  has  within  him  the 
natural  tendency  to  repeat  the  process  and  is,  nat- 
urally disappointed  to  find  that  his  preserve  is  either 
gone  or  has  been  seized  by  some  one  else.  In  the  evo- 
lution of  the  process  which  we  now  call  taxation,  there 
has  come  the  universal  expectation  practise  and  ap- 
plication of  taxation  of  some  sort.  Even  when  it 
does  not  take  some  visible,  tangible  and  expressed 
form,  the  thing  is  known  to  be  there  and  there  is  no- 

67 


68    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

body  now  who  believes  in  an  untaxed  existence  or  its 
possibility.  There  is,  of  course,  a  great  deal  of  de- 
lusion on  the  subject  and  the  deluded  do  not  belong 
exclusively  to  any  class  of  society.  Many  believe  they 
are  avoiding  taxes  which  they  pay  as  surely  as  day- 
light comes.  Others  think  they  are  escaping  taxes, 
which  they  believe  others  are  bearing  for  them,  usually 
not  knowing  that  the  solidarity  of  society  is  such  that 
in  the  long  run  nobody  successfully  escapes  what  is 
properly  his.  History  is  the  ironical  comment  of 
Providence  on  the  stupid  attempts  of  mankind  to 
avoid  their  just  responsibilities.  They  avoid  render- 
ing in  one  generation  by  taxation  what  the  next  takes 
by  pillage  and  plunder.  The  equalizing  process 
known  or  unrecognized  is  always  going  on  with  re- 
lentless regularity. 

The  universal  belief  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
an  untaxed  existence  is  itself  a  confession  of  faith  in 
the  essential  solidarity  of  human  interests.  It  is  a 
crude,  but  not  less  genuine,  form  of  collectivism  be- 
cause it  indicates  that  somewhere  there  is  an  authority, 
a  power  to  which  we  all  bow  and  to  which  we  must  all 
pay.  If  it  happens  to  be  the  state,  we  call  it  our  gov- 
ernment. If  it  happens  to  be  a  fraternal  organization, 
with  sick  benefits  and  a  payment  to  our  heirs  we  call 
it  insurance.  In  the  one  case,  it  is  compulsory  and  in 
the  other  it  is  voluntary,  but  in  both  cases  it  is  a 
tax,  by  which  we  express  some  kind  of  mutuality  or 
relationship  to  others  and  this  is  the  beginning  of  all 
collectivism.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  there  is  no 
longer  any  need  for  arguing  about  the  rightness  or 


Religion  and  Taxation  69 

wrongness  of  collectivism,  as  an  idea,  because  that 
idea  through  taxation  has  been  lifted  out  of  the  area 
of  debate  and  is  the  settled  expression  of  the  belief 
and  purpose  of  mankind. 

But  why  call  this  a  religious  matter?  What  has 
this  to  do  with  religion?  Just  this,  that  it  is  proving 
and  accepting  to  the  degree  to  v^hich  it  is  exemplified, 
the  doctrine  that  no  man  liveth  to  himself.  That  is 
the  essence  of  religion.  Expand  that  idea  logically 
and  you  will  come  to  a  brotherhood  which  is  Chris- 
tianity. Apply  it  to  every  human  concern  and  you 
will  get  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Develop  the  funda- 
mental idea  upon  which  a  tax  rests,  as  accepted  by  the 
civilized  world  to-day,  and  you  will  get  Christianity, 
which  while  not  the  Christianity  of  miracle  nor  the 
Christianity  of  money,  is  nevertheless  a  Christianity 
which  includes  both  miracle  and  money.  No  man 
liveth  to  himself  that  is  the  message  of  taxation. 
Robinson  Crusoe  alone  on  his  island  is  not  taxed. 
Why?  Because  he  must  live  perforce  to  himself. 
But  the  moment  his  man  Friday  appears  he  must  tax 
himself  for  Friday  as  well  as  labor  for  himself.  The 
provision  for  two  involves  both  increased  labor  and 
different  division  of  labor  and  the  product  of  labor. 
That  is  simply  what  all  taxation  comes  to  in  the  end. 
And  if  taxation  means  that  no  man  liveth  to  himself 
then  the  subject  of  taxation  is  one  of  the  most  se- 
riously religious  themes  that  can  engage  the  mind  of 
the  thinking  man. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  most  men  who  have  to  do 
with  taxes  and  taxation  rarely  think  of  this  aspect  of 


70    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  case,  yet  that  fact  does  not  alter  the  truth  nor 
does  it  alter  the  fact  that  some  time  this  relation  must 
come  under  serious  religious  reflection.  The  Ananias 
and  Sapphira  episode  in  the  Book  of  Acts  already  re- 
ferred to,  has  here  again  its  deep  and  fierce  signif- 
icance when  the  subject  of  taxation  is  approached 
from  the  standpoint  of  religion.  The  great  sums 
gathered  by  cities,  states  and  national  governments  for 
the  maintenance  of  institutions,  which  are  needful  to 
the  happiness  and  well  being  of  the  people  who  live 
under  them,  are  something  more  than  so  much  money. 
They  represent  justice,  through  the  courts,  they  rep- 
resent all  kinds  of  human  relations,  through  the  postal 
service,  in  the  exchange  of  thought,  interest,  emotion 
and  ideas  which  is  thus  made  possible,  they  represent 
the  channels  of  intercourse  and  communication  in  the 
upkeep  of  highways  and  transportation  facilities,  and 
all  these  together  mean  the  happiness  and  moral  well 
being  of  society.  If  all  these  things  are  not  religion 
then  it  would  be  hard  to  explain  what  religion  is.  If 
you  are  excluded  from  the  mails,  let  us  say,  being  in 
a  remote  portion  of  the  country  you  are  as  effectually 
starved  in  one  direction  as  though  your  food  had  been 
taken  away  in  another.  Communication  as  the  case 
stands  to-day  is  not  merely  a  privilege  of  living  —  it 
is,  in  many  cases,  life  itself.  Let  a  snow  storm  cut 
off  the  supply  of  milk  for  a  few  days  from  one  of  our 
great  cities  and  hundreds  of  children  have  to  die. 
Communication  is  life.  We  submit  to  this  when 
Providence  is  responsible  for  it  but  we  do  not  submit 
to  it  long  or  patiently,  when  any  one  else  does  it.     We 


Religion  and  Taxation  71 

shall  submit  to  it  less  in  the  future  than  we  have  in 
the  past.  It  is  the  same  with  other  things.  All  these 
benefits  for  which  we  pay  taxes  represent  life  —  and 
because  we  are  convinced  that  to  this  degree  at  least 
no  man  liveth  to  himself,  we  submit  to  taxation,  be- 
cause we  are  sure  and  convinced  beyond  doubt  that 
if  it  were  otherwise  we  should  die.  From  this  point 
of  view  a  tax  is  one  of  the  most  altruistic  perform- 
ances which  mankind  has  invented.  And  the  more 
widely  the  tax  is  distributed,  the  more  people  who  be- 
come involved  in  it,  and  the  more  that  are  affected  by 
it,  the  more  altruistic  that  is  the  more  religious,  does 
the  tax  become.  It  is  this  consciousness  which  has 
led  in  more  recent  times  to  taxes  which  a  few  gen- 
erations ago  were  unheard  of,  like  inheritance  taxes 
and  taxes  graduated  to  the  size  of  the  fortune,  left 
for  disposition.  It  is  an  interesting  story  too  long 
and  involved  for  explication  here,  but  none  the  less 
striking,  to  follow  the  reasoning  by  which  states  have 
come  to  impose  taxation  of  one  kind  and  another.  It 
is  interesting  to  see  how  the  power  to  lay  hands  upon 
estates  has  gradually  developed,  and  not  less  so  to  see 
how  surely  the  conception  of  a  public  or  social  interest 
in  every  man's  property  has  extended  itself.  The 
only  ground  for  all  these  advances  has  been  the  idea 
that  taxes  are  the  expression  of  the  solidarity  of  those 
who  are  subject  to  them.  If  it  be  argued  that  this 
solidarity  is  a  purely  material  matter,  which  is  ex- 
pressed only  in  buildings,  parks,  roads,  railways  and 
the  like,  one  only  needs  to  examine  the  nature  of  the 
things  undertaken  and  the  reasons   for  undertaking 


72    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

them,  to  see  that  behind  this  huge  money  collecting 
organization  is  a  collective  spirit  a  human  solidarity, 
which  matured  spiritually,  means  brotherhood. 

And  be  it  added  that  no  fitter  means  could  be  de- 
vised for  expressing  the  elementary  conception  of 
brotherhood.  The  money  tribute  is  the  one  easiest 
paid  and  involves  nothing  of  personality.  But  at 
least  it  makes  for  livability.  One  hundred  thousand 
people  in  the  same  community  may  not  have  many 
things  in  common  on  the  personal  side,  but  they  all 
have  to  breathe  the  same  air,  drink,  for  the  most  part, 
the  same  water,  travel  over  the  same  roads,  be  subject 
to  the  same  storms  and  floods  and  personal  interest 
and  the  collective  good  unite  in  urging  an  agreement 
for  government,  which  involves  the  tax,  which  is  their 
expression  of  acceptance  of  the  common  interest. 
How  else  shall  brotherhood  begin?  Personal  inti- 
macies are  not  born  in  an  instant.  Tastes,  education, 
habits  of  life,  appreciation  of  nature  and  purposes  in 
life,  are  separative  factors  in  life.  Almost  every  one 
of  these  accentuates  some  form  of  difference,  and 
they  are  not  easily  or  rapidly  matured  to  the  point 
where  they  find  fellowship  and  similarity  easy  of  ex- 
pression. Humanity  could  not  and  does  not  wait  for 
these  before  expressing  its  solidarity.  It  does  not 
wait  even  for  the  expression  of  what  we  commonly 
call  religion.  A  community  in  which  atheists,  deists. 
Christians  and  Jews  to  say  nothing  of  various  races 
and  colors,  were  found  together,  would,  in  this  matter, 
operate  exactly  like  a  more  homogeneous  group.  The 
process  would  be  more  difficult,  but  it  would  be  the 


Religion  and  Taxation  73 

same  process  and  almost  its  first  acts  would  be  the 
expression  of  their  collective  sense  of  solidarity  in 
the  distribution  of  the  common  burden  of  securing  the 
means  of  existence.  To  these  they  would  add  others 
just  as  rapidly  as  they  could  agree  upon  them.  And 
for  each  addition  they  would  tax  themselves,  in  true 
altruistic  fashion.  What  better  manner  of  beginning 
a  common  religion?  And  how  could  the  duty  of  the 
individual  to  his  neighbor  be  laid  down  with  greater 
precision  and  force  than  in  the  tax  for  the  community  ? 
Appropriately  too  at  least,  in  theory,  the  New  Tes- 
tament motive  is  carried  out  in  the  division  of  taxa- 
tion. From  him  that  hath  much,  much  is  required. 
Nobody  thinks  of  requiring  much  from  him  who  has 
nothing.  But  again,  theoretically,  we  do  not  exempt 
the  possessor  of  little.  We  exact  his  little  with  the 
same  regularity  and  rigor  that  we  exact  from  the  pos- 
sessor of  much  his  larger  contribution.  Is  not  this 
the  very  essence  of  religion?  Nay,  is  not  this  doing 
exactly  what  the  New  Testament  enjoins?  Is  not 
this  Christianity?  Certainly,  if  an  ideally  just  system 
of  taxation  could  be  put  into  execution,  we  should 
have  no  complaints,  for  each  would  be  bearing  his 
proper  burden  and  all  would  be  satisfied.  It  is,  of 
course,  not  to  be  expected  that  an  ideally  just  system 
could  be  devised,  but  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  ideal 
motive  so  far  as  human  nature  is  able  thus  to  govern 
a  system,  shall  govern  whatever  system  is  permitted 
to  prevail.  There  is  probably  no  single  form  of  hu- 
man activity,  which  permitted  to  develop  naturally 
and  held  to  its  ideal  motive,  would  so  automatically 


74    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

express  the  material  conditions  under  which  Chris- 
tianity would  blossom  as  that  of  just  taxation.  It  is 
not  strange  therefore  that  by  regular  evolution  every 
social  advance  and  every  religious  advance  has  also 
had  its  rise  and  development  in  connection  with  the 
forms  and  the  justice  of  methods  of  taxation.  To 
suppose,  therefore,  that  any  Christian  development  of 
mankind  can  leave  untouched  questions  which  relate 
to  this  very  important  and  far  reaching  expression  of 
the  solidarity  of  the  community,  is  to  suppose  what 
cannot  possibly  take  place.  The  religion  of  mankind, 
whatever  it  is  or  is  to  be  if  it  has  any  sense  of  fellow- 
ship, must  grapple  with  this  problem  as  almost  no 
other.  It  must  ask  itself,  over  and  over  again, 
whether  the  method  for  distributing  the  responsibili- 
ties of  human  brotherhood,  as  represented  by  their 
agreed  common  interests,  is  a  sound  method  and 
whether  it  is  what  it  purports  to  be.  That  is  a  far 
reaching  undertaking. 

But  here  again  we  are  suddenly  made  aware  that 
Christianity  as  such  has  never  undertaken  to  deal  with 
this  question  in  the  large  spirit  in  which  we  have  set 
forth  the  obligation  and  its  significance.  The  com- 
munity entirely  independent  of  its  formal  religion  has 
been  much  more  thorough.  For  not  only  does  the 
community  fix  in  definite,  intelligible  terms,  what  the 
duty  shall  be  as  expressed  by  the  tax,  which  its  col- 
lective voice  imposes  and  its  united  strength  collects, 
but  it  goes  further  and  enforces  penalties  for  failure 
to  meet  the  duty  which  the  collective  decree  provides. 
The  program  therefore  is  perfectly  spherical.     The 


Religion  and  Taxation  75 

contrast  between  the  spirit  and  method  of  the  state 
and  the  spirit  and  method  of  the  church  in  this  respect 
is  very  marked.  The  church  for  the  most  part,  first 
of  all,  takes  no  cognizance  of  this  form  of  collective 
life  except  in  the  remotest  manner  and  then,  not  as  a 
matter  of  personal  religious  service.  Then  again  it 
leaves  the  corrective  for  any  dereliction  to  the  com- 
munity, outside  of  itself  and  hence  its  sin  extermina- 
tion program,  leaves  out  warfare  against  one  of  the 
gravest  offenses  of  which  men  can  be  guilty,  namely, 
an  offense  against  the  expression  of  brotherhood, 
through  the  organization  of  the  community,  whose 
symbol  is  a  tax.  Christ  here  was  much  more  explicit. 
Render  unto  Csesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  said 
Jesus.  He  perceived  that  fidelity  to  this  obligation 
was  as  fundamental  as  the  moral  law  itself.  It  may 
easily,  in  certain  cases,  become  the  moral  law  and 
Jesus  therefore  imposed  upon  his  followers  the  duty, 
however  repugnant  to  every  personal  and  national 
feeling.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  the  religious  sig- 
nificance of  taxation  should  have  so  small  a  place  in 
the  consciousness  of  so  many  otherwise  religious 
people.  It  is  true  enough,  that  from  time  to  time 
questions  of  taxation  have  been  dealt  with  in  a  quasi- 
religious  manner,  but  on  the  whole,  taxation  as  a  form 
of  communal  religion  has  been  only  dimly  recognized. 
This  want  of  understanding  of  the  spiritual  sig- 
nificance of  taxation  is  justly  chargeable  to  the  Chris- 
tian church,  which  has,  for  the  most  part,  had  nothing 
to  say  on  the  subject.  Nay,  she  is  in  even  a  worse 
position  than  being  guilty  of  things  left  undone.     The 


76    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

thousands  of  Christian  names,  so-called,  because  iden- 
tified with  Christian  churches  and  Christian  enter- 
prises, which  are  also  notorious  for  their  tax-dodging 
proclivities  and  failure  to  recognize  this  large  duty  of 
communal  Christian  relations,  are  a  sorry  commentary 
upon  the  social  influence  and  social  instruction  of  the 
church.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  a  Christian 
minister  who  to-day  would  preach  a  sermon  on  the 
subject  of  taxation  would  be  regarded  as  a  curiosity 
by  most  of  his  congregation.  "  What  has  this  to  do 
with  religion?"  would  be  the  inquiry  and  if  it  did 
not  set  into  motion  the  machinery  for  his  prompt  re- 
moval, it  would  indicate  exceptional  skill  on  his  part 
and  exceptional  forbearance  on  the  part  of  his  con- 
gregation. And  yet  this  is  as  clear  a  Christian  duty 
as  it  is  possible  to  find.  It  is  a  duty  specifically  en- 
joined by  Christ!  It  is  a  duty  taught  by  the  New 
Testament  and  is  confirmed  by  the  experience  and 
judgment  of  enlightened  men.  Yet  it  has  no  place 
in  the  church  curriculum  of  instruction  and  no  place  in 
the  organization  of  Christian  behavior.  Whenever 
the  inequalities  of  taxation  have  been  made  public 
and  under  the  stress  of  unusual  agitation,  the  figures 
have  been  brought  to  public  attention,  the  amazing 
fact  is  revealed  with  discouraging  regularity,  that  the 
pews  of  the  Christian  churches  and  the  lists  of  the 
tax  dodging  enemies  of  the  common  weal  contain 
many  of  the  same  people.  Under  these  conditions 
is  it  strange  that  the  church  should  be  attacked  as 
supporting  and  being  under  the  sway  of  an  evil  social 
system?    It  would  be  surprising  if  the  attack  were 


Religion  and  Taxation  77 

not  made,  because  here  in  the  most  simple  and  under- 
standable form  is  shown  the  difference  between  pro- 
fession and  practise. 


II 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  situation  just  de- 
scribed has  been  left  without  vigorous  apologies. 
In  fact,  there  is  nothing  about  which  most  taxpayers 
are  so  generally  agreed,  as  that  the  taxes  are  out- 
rageously unjust  either  in  conception,  or  execution, 
or  distribution,  or  all  three.  And  if  we  add  to  this 
protest  the  unanimous,  or  almost  unanimous,  opinion 
of  those  who  reckon  themselves  as  among  the  untaxed 
that  the  taxes  are  not  sufficient  instead  of  being  ex- 
cessive, you  have  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  entire 
community,  that  the  system  of  taxation,  whatever  it 
happens  to  be,  is  wholly  wrong.  But  it  is  interesting 
to  observe  in  this  connection  that  all  efforts  to  secure 
equitable  taxation  are  met  with  determined  opposition 
on  the  part  of  those  upon  whom  they  are  likely  to  fall. 
The  question  is  thus  reduced  to  one  which  certainly 
is  not  a  question  of  taxation,  whatever  it  is  or  is  not. 
If  the  taxed  do  not  want  the  system  changed,  except 
in  the  direction  which  relieves  them  of  further  or 
continuing  responsibilities,  and  the  so-called  untaxed 
want  them  changed  in  the  direction  of  larger  respon- 
sibilities, for  those  who  possess  the  wealth  to  be 
taxed,  what  shall  be  done?  What  we  do  in  such 
cases  is  to  resort  to  the  iron  law  of  majorities,  of  which 
more  later.     At  this  point  it  may  be  stated  however 


78    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

that  nothing  is  more  foolish  or  stupid  than  the  rule 
of  majorities,  as  if  majorities  meant  reason,  justice, 
common  sense  or  any  other  worth  while  quality  of 
government  or  administration!  But  of  this  more 
later  also.  What  practically  happens  is,  that  it  be- 
comes a  contest  for  control  in  which  every  decent 
principle  of  humanity  is  thrown  to  the  winds  and  in 
which  Christianity  plays  no  part  whatever.  There  is 
no  story  so  sordid,  so  savage,  so  contemptible  as  the 
story  of  the  avoidance  of  just  responsibilities  to  the 
community,  as  represented  by  the  methods  of  dealing 
with  public  taxation. 

Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at,  when  we  remember 
that  the  ethical  element  has  generally  been  entirely 
eliminated  from  the  discussion.  We  talk  of  course 
about  this  or  that  tax  being  "  just "  and  submit  to  it 
when  decreed,  simply  finding  that  war  against  it  is 
more  expensive  than  submitting  to  it.  But  when  war 
against  it  is  not  more  expensive  than  paying  it  those 
upon  whom  the  tax  falls  do  not  submit  to  it,  as  our 
court  records  and  our  political  upheavals  abundantly 
show.  Why  should  the  tax  question  not  be  a  purely 
savage  performance?  It  has  been  divorced  from  the 
one  thing  that  could  save  it  from  savagery,  namely 
religion.  Why  should  it  not  reek  with  injustice,  with 
bribery,  with  fraud  and  every  other  vice?  It  has 
been  taken  out  of  the  area  where  these  things  are 
called  by  their  proper  names  and  branded  with  their 
proper  ignominy.  There  are  of  course  unusual  per- 
sons and  Christian  people,  who  make  their  taxation  a 
subject   of   moral   reflection,   but   not   many.     Most 


Religion  and  Taxation  79 

people  do  not  regard  this  as  a  matter  of  morals  but 
as  a  matter  of  skill,  as  between  the  assessors  and  tax 
collectors  and  the  tax  payers.  All  unite  in  condemn- 
ing the  system  which  imposes  so  much  upon  them. 
Taxation,  you  will  be  told  is  a  scientific  matter,  in  the 
imposition  of  which  we  need  the  highest  kind  of  train- 
ing and  expert  talent.  But  I  have  sat  more  than  once 
in  legislative  halls  and  heard  the  "  highest  kind  of 
expert  talent "  prove  conclusively  that  every  other 
kind  of  expert  talent  and  skill  but  its  own  was  absurd, 
and  unjust.  If  these  are  thus  at  loggerheads,  where 
shall  the  ignorant  and  the  foolish  appear?  What 
shall  we  do  when  we  are  told  that  every  plan  proposed 
for  greater  equalization  of  the  public  burden  is  either 
anarchic  or  confiscatory  or  worse?  These  are  not 
fictitious  terms,  they  are  expressions  habitually  em- 
ployed whenever  any  movement  is  made  toward  tax 
reform  no  matter  what  its  character.  It  is  hard  to 
see  how  it  could  be  otherwise.  Once  eliminate  the 
moral  element  from  the  consideration  of  the  problem 
and  there  is  hardly  anything  else  to  be  expected. 
Take  away  any  sense  of  communal  obligation,  espe- 
cially obligation  which  is  enforced  by  religion,  and 
you  have  simply  the  savage  struggle  to  get  out  of  the 
melee  what  can  be  got  by  fair  means  or  foul.  This 
is  a  reasonably  fair  description  of  our  status  at  the 
present  moment. 

Any  denial  that  this  is  a  fair  description  must  as- 
sume the  fearful  burden  of  explanation  and  apology 
for  things  as  they  are.  Why  the  supporters  of  Chris- 
tian churches  and  frequenters  of  the  Christian  com- 


8o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

munion  table  rent  property  for  immoral  purposes,  why 
they  allow  the  ghastly  conditions  to  prevail  in  tene- 
ments and  hovels,  why  they  connive  at  conditions 
which  annually  mean  the  lives  of  thousands  of  chil- 
dren, must  then  be  in  some  manner  reconciled  with 
the  prevailing  Christianity  of  the  churches.  Such  a 
reconciliation  would  be  the  damnation  of  Christianity 
if  it  could  be  made.  But  it  cannot  be  made.  The 
most  rational  and  simplest  explanation  is  that  these 
things  are  not  considered  within  the  area  of  Christian 
behavior.  That  explains  automatically  why  a  man, 
personally  upright  and  incorrupt,  will  permit  his  agent 
to  damn  any  number  of  persons  in  the  redlight  dis- 
trict. It  will  explain  why  he  is  savage  and  saint  at 
once.  And  it  will  show  the  way  out  clearly,  as  noth- 
ing else  will.  Christianity  must  include  property  and 
with  it  taxation  in  the  scheme  of  the  work  of  the 
Christian  religion.  It  may  be  admitted  that  the  con- 
summation of  the  union  is  a  long  distance  off.  It 
may  be  admitted  that  there  are  many  blunders  to  be 
made  and  much  sorrow  to  be  experienced  in  the  per- 
fection of  the  details  if  indeed  the  details  are  ever 
perfected.  But  certainly  a  beginning  may  be  made 
and  responsibility  can  be  assumed  and  admitted  even 
if  the  practise  of  the  virtue  is  not  instantaneously 
attained.  The  antithesis  which  is  here  brought  into 
view  is  one  which  has  had  more  to  do  with  the  loss  of 
repute  by  the  Christian  church  among  the  masses  of 
mankind  than  any  other  single  thing.  Personal  cor- 
ruptness is  always  its  own  condemnation.  A  Chris- 
tian who  is  found  guilty  of  murder,  grand  larceny  or 


Religion  and  Taxation  81 

any  other  indictable  offense  which  involves  his  per- 
sonal act,  openly  and  intelligibly,  may  be  understood 
at  once  as  "  a  good  man  gone  wrong  "  or  a  hypocrite 
who  never  was  converted.  But  a  property  owner 
who  makes  a  contribution  to  foreign  missions  from 
the  proceeds  of  the  rent  of  a  brothel  and  who  refuses 
to  submit  to  the  indictment  and  keeps  on  calling  evil 
good,  and  good  evil,  and  is  sustained  in  his  Christian 
profession,  demoralizes  and  discredits  the  entire  struc- 
ture of  the  Christian  church.  The  cases  are  numerous 
enough  to  make  the  indictment  general.  No  investi- 
gation committee  was  ever  organized,  in  any  city,  that 
did  not  strike  this  very  problem.  If  these  offenders 
had  been  of  the  grossly  immoral  type,  which  figures 
in  the  criminal  courts,  nobody  would  have  been  sur- 
prised. Indeed  nobody  would  have  been  offended. 
There  would  have  been  a  sort  of  fitness  in  the  corre- 
lation, so  to  speak.  But  when  the  immaculate 
habitues  of  the  Christian  pews  on  Sunday  are  found 
to  be  collaborators  of  the  general  and  widespread  vice, 
the  feeling  is  somewhat  different. 

In  recent  years,  this  fearful  aspect  of  the  question 
has  steadily  come  more  clearly  into  view.  As  before 
stated,  the  benevolence  theory  has  hopelessly  broken 
down.  It  would  have  broken  down  for  economic  rea- 
sons, if  it  had  not  broken  down  from  reasons  of  pure 
selfishness.  But  the  ever  rising  mountain  of  crime 
and  vice,  the  ever  extending  slaughter  of  innocents, 
could  not  fail  to  demand  public  efforts  and  with  public 
efforts  came  public  investigation  and  the  question  of 
public  taxation.     Then  these  relations  began  to  be  in- 


82     Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

quired  into  and  began  to  be  understood.  That  has 
been  the  great  catastrophe  for  modern  religion  and 
especially  for  the  Christian  church. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  discussion  here  is  con- 
fined to  those  things,  which  the  general  moral  sense 
pronounces  humanly  and  morally  disastrous.  But  the 
field  is  much  wider.  It  was  not  only  found  that  there 
was  actual  Christian  partnership  in  vice  and  criminal- 
ity, but  Christian  avoidance  of  other  obligations, 
which  while  not  so  pronouncedly  moral  in  their  char- 
acter, nevertheless  reflected  seriously  upon  the  Chris- 
tian profession.  It  is  the  commonest  fling  at  the 
Christian  church  at  this  hour.  Now  what  has  re- 
sulted? Let  any  serious  man  ask  himself,  what  under 
such  conditions  would  naturally  result?  The  answer 
is  plain  enough,  the  vice  of  the  multitudes  of  schemes 
and  programs  for  the  greater  equalization  of  the  pub- 
lic burden.  Not  long  ago  a  Christian  bishop  said 
that  a  certain  tax  program  in  which  he  believed  had, 
with  him,  the  same  force  as  the  Christian  religion 
itself.  That  is  exactly  what  it  ought  to  have,  because 
it  ought  to  be  a  part  of  his  religipn.  To  be  sure  many 
thousands  of  his  fellow  citizens  do  not  believe  in  his 
program,  but  that  is  a  minor  question.  The  impor- 
tant thing  is  that  he  links  taxation  with  religion.  Let 
every  man  who  thinks  about  taxation  think  about  it 
religiously,  and  the  way  out  will  be  found  in  spite  of 
the  overpowering  expert  talent  and  knowledge,  which 
is  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  the  proper  explication 
of  the  problem.  Genuinely  religious  men  may  at 
least  be  supposed  to  want  a  solution.     And  men  who 


Religion  and  Taxation  83 

want  a  solution  of  anything  rarely  have  any  difficulty 
in  finding  a  modus  vivendi.  The  world  has  never 
lagged  for  knowledge  particularly.  But  it  has  de- 
cidedly lagged  in  the  acquisition  of  the  disposition  to 
apply  its  knowledge  to  its  own  conduct.  But  the 
main  thing  to  note  is,  that  out  of  this  moral  chaos 
we  have  seen  come  a  host  of  plans  for  the  social  re- 
generation of  mankind.  What  most  of  these  pro- 
grams mean  when  they  say  what  they  mean  with 
truth  is,  that  they  want  a  better  distribution  of  money. 
They  all  affirm  the  duty  on  the  part  of  others  to  do 
the  things  they  desire.  They  rarely  begin  with  the 
obligation  on  their  own  part  to  begin  the  process. 

What  this  multiplicity  of  programs  for  social  re- 
generation has  resulted  in  will  be  dealt  with  a  little 
further  on.  For  the  present  it  is  sufficient  to  notice 
that  the  want  of  inclusion  of  the  subject  of  taxation 
in  the  church  curriculum  has  involved  us  in  moral 
anarchy  with  respect  to  that  subject.  Think  for  one 
moment,  now  that  it  is  over,  of  a  great  church  cor- 
poration for  many  years  holding  and  deriving  revenue 
from  some  of  the  worst  tenements  of  New  York  City! 
Think  for  a  moment  of  the  utter  want  of  understand- 
ing of  the  simplest  elements  of  the  Christian  religion, 
not  only  by  these,  but  by  the  thousands  like  them  in 
the  whole  country,  who  still  carry  on  practises  which 
public  criticism  and  shame  forced  this  particular 
offender  to  abandon!  Is  there  cause  for  wonder  at 
the  moral  bankruptcy  of  a  religion,  which  can  see 
such  things,  without  a  storm  of  wrath  and  shame? 
But  this  was  not  an  offender  above  all  that  dwelt  in 


84    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Jerusalem!  It  was  simply  a  conspicuous  offender! 
The  breed  is  scattered  about  everywhere.  The  re- 
sulting crime  and  vice  overflows  all  boundaries. 
Huge  foundations  have  to  be  established  to  work  out 
the  sources  of  these  vices,  that  really  have  their  bases 
in  a  moral  obliquity  which  was  and  is  tolerated 
throughout  Christendom  because  taxation  is  supposed 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  religion!  Shylock  had  a 
perfectly  clear  appreciation  of  this  relation  when  he 
said  "  You  take  my  life  when  you  take  the  means  by 
which  I  live."  But  the  Christian  church  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twentieth  century  not  only  has  not, 
apparently,  learned  this  in  practise,  but  even  permits 
the  ghastly  participation  of  its  members  not  only  in 
taking  the  means  of  life  away  from  the  helpless  dere- 
licts of  civilization,  but  actually  deriving  revenue  from 
the  damnation  of  humanity. 

Costly  indeed  has  been  this  failure  of  the  Christian 
church  to  recognize  its  duty  and  its  own  gospel  in  this 
matter.  Thousands  of  people  are  staggering  through 
life  faithless  and  unbelieving  in  spiritual  realities, 
because  they  see  on  every  hand  the  representatives  of 
these  realities,  nullifying  them  by  practises  which  can- 
not be  squared  with  the  simplest  rules  of  morality, 
much  less  Christian  profession.  Innumerable  cults 
and  societies  have  sprung  up  and  are  springing  up 
daily  which  have  for  their  objective  the  very  things 
which  the  Christian  church  is  supposed  to  be  doing. 
The  very  aim  which  used  to  be  the  exclusive  asset  of 
the  church,  namely  the  task  of  regenerating  the  world, 
is  now  assumed  by  all  sorts  of  propagandists  and  the 


I 


Religion  and  Taxation  85 

pathetic  fact,  from  the  Christian  point  of  view  is, 
that  no  one  of  these  takes  the  slightest  account  of 
the  church  as  a  factor,  even,  in  the  problem.  This 
contemptuous  attitude  toward  the  church  might  be  tol- 
erated, if  it  did  not  carry  with  it  an  equally  and  in- 
creasing contempt  for  religion  itself.  But  nobody 
seems  to  expect  that  any  one  of  the  vital  relations  of 
life  will  in  the  slightest  degree  be  made  holier  or 
happier  or  more  moral,  because  it  happens  to  bear  the 
Christian  label.  And  when  it  comes  to  the  consid- 
eration of  public  questions,  especially  that  which  most 
nearly  affects  the  well  being  of  every  man,  woman  and 
child  in  the  community,  namely  the  taxation,  by  which 
the  communal  obligation  is  expressed,  nobody  thinks 
of  Christian  duty  as  having  anything  to  do  with  the 
question.  For,  as  far  as  this  matter  of  taxation  is 
concerned,  the  Christian  church  might  as  well  be  non- 
existent. 

Ill 

The  excision  of  the  moral  element  from  the  subject 
of  taxes  has  had  a  result  far  more  serious  than  those 
which  have  already  been  indicated.  The  moral  ele- 
ment in  any  question  is  by  its  nature  the  supreme  and 
imperative  element.  Its  expulsion  from  any  discus- 
sion or  any  region  of  human  behavior  and  action, 
therefore,  is  more  than  expulsion;  it  amounts  sub- 
stantially to  extinction.  And  since  the  question  of 
equal  sharing  in  the  communal  burden  represented  by 
taxation  stretches  out  into  every  part  of  the  com- 
munity life  and  is  fundamental  to  the  community  idea, 


86    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  practical  denial  of  the  right  of  religion  to  enter 
into  this  field  has  meant  its  exclusion  and  vitiation 
in  almost  every  other  field.  The  moral  sense  of  the 
entire  community  has  thus  become  corroded  and  this 
carried  in  its  train  the  gradual  subsidence  of  the  moral 
consideration  of  almost  every  other  public  question, 
and  almost  every  question  of  private  behavior. 

Apologists  for  the  present  social  order  are  prone  to 
compare  our  present  conditions  with  those  which  have 
prevailed  in  past  centuries,  and  have  drawn  lurid  con- 
trasts between  the  atrocities  which  used  to  be  practised, 
without  public  shame  and  condemnation  and  the  pres- 
ent quick  response  to  the  moral  appeal  as  applied  to 
public  affairs.  To  this  there  may  be  made  a  twofold 
reply.  No  critic  of  present  social  conditions  could 
make  a  severer  criticism  than  is  implied  in  the  mere 
contrast  between  past  and  present  conditions  because 
such  a  contrast  implies  a  fixed  moral  standard  and 
does  not  take  into  account  the  advances  which  men 
have  made  in  moral  feeling  and  discernment,  as  well 
as  everything  else.  To  say  that  we  used  to  hang  men 
for  trivial  crimes  which  we  do  not  do  now  and  deduce 
therefrom  a  more  humane  spirit  seems  to  us  very 
foolish.  If  we  were  not  more  humane  with  the  in- 
crease of  human  knowledge  and  with  the  expansion 
of  human  opportunities  and  intercourse  what  should 
we  be  compelled  to  say  of  civilization  itself?  The 
question  is  not  whether  conditions  have  improved  but 
whether  with  all  the  opportunities  for  wise  and  hu- 
mane action  and  activity,  we  are  relatively  so  much 
better  than  the  centuries  past  were.     That  is  the  real 


Religion  and  Taxation  87 

question  and  to  this  question  the  answer  is  by  no 
means  clear.  Human  sensitiveness  to  misery  has  in- 
creased with  everything  else.  The  gross  brutalities 
of  other  periods  of  the  world's  history  are  not  nec- 
essary to-day  to  crush  the  life  and  hope  out  of  men. 
The  very  advance  in  popular  intelligence  and  the  con- 
sequent increase  in  mankind's  expectation  of  itself 
would  rather  tend  to  make  it  much  simpler  to  crush 
a  man  to-day  than  it  ever  has  been.  This  is  espe- 
cially observable  in  the  vast  increase  of  the  number  of 
men  who  are  broken  in  courage  and  hope  in  life, 
though  their  faculties  are  not  impaired.  It  is  evi- 
denced in  the  ruthless  "  scrapping "  of  men  in  the 
interest  of  greater  dividends  or  greater  efficiency. 
There  was  a  time  when  such  things  were  to  be  ex- 
pected. They  are  not  to  be  expected  to-day  nor  any- 
thing like  them.  And  it  is  an  open  question  whether 
relatively  bur  own  age  is  not  morally  lower  in  the 
scale  than  some  past  ages  of  the  world  have  been. 
One  does  not  have  to  be  a  hopeless  pessimist  or  a 
worshiper  of  the  past  to  feel  this  very  strongly.  On 
every  hand  one  sees  things  persisting  which  have 
over  and  over  again  been  shown  to  be  causeless  and 
brutally  in  defiance  of  all  right  feeling  and  action 
among  men.  But  side  by  side  with  many  of  the 
admitted  evils  of  society  we  see  moral  and  spiritual 
paralysis  which  seems  unable  to  grapple  with  the 
problem.  Indeed  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  there  is 
a  subconscious  feeling  that  the  whole  moral  claim  is 
something  of  a  humbug.  Few  persons  dare  to  say 
this  openly.     But  that  thousands  believe  it  and  se- 


88    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

cretly  believe  that  to  suppose  that  men  as  a  whole  will 
ever  act  morally  is  simply  a  dream  of  enthusiasts  and 
reformers  —  chiefly  persons  without  property  to  be 
protected  or  taxed,  is  unquestionable.  In  other  words 
the  moral  claim  for  social  action  is  in  the  hands, 
chiefly,  of  those  who  have  little  or  no  opportunity  to 
show  what  they  would  do  if  they  had  the  resources 
to  put  their  theories  into  action.  And  as  before  indi- 
cated, many  of  these  when  they  pass  from  the  unprop- 
ertied  to  the  propertied  class  find  it  simpler  to  adopt 
the  prevailing  views  and  sink  into  the  general  disso- 
lution of  morals  and  taxation. 

Thus  it  comes  about  that  the  divorce  of  morals  and 
especially  the  morals  which  are  virile  and  gripping, 
which  are  based  upon  religion  and  its  sanctions,  has 
operated  as  a  universal  solvent  of  moral  and  spiritual 
conviction,  because  what  will  not  work  in  those  in- 
terests which  men  can  see,  handle  and  administer 
certainly  will  not  work  in  the  higher  regions  of  per- 
sonal service  and  sacrifice.  And  out  of  all  this  has 
come  the  general  conviction,  that  the  world  will  never 
be  regenerated  by  moral  revolution.  On  the  one 
hand  we  are  told,  and  told  truly,  that  you  cannot  make 
men  good  by  statute  law  while  on  the  other  hand  we 
face  the  practical  demonstration  that  if  a  man  cannot 
or  will  not  be  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  namely 
purchasable  and  salable  things,  he  cannot  reasonably 
be  expected  to  be  faithful  in  that  which  is  much, 
namely  personal  moral  sacrifice  and  devotion.  And 
thus  the  social  body  is  divided  into  two  camps,  which 
are  clearly  indicated  by  these  shibboleths  —  those  who 


Religion  and  Taxation  89 

do  not  believe  you  can  accomplish  anything  by  law  — 
which  being  interpreted  means  that  they  wish  to  be 
let  alone  and  not  interfered  with  in  their  own  par- 
ticular practises  and  profits  —  and  those  who  believe 
that  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  possibly  make  head- 
way is  by  social  nostrums  and  programs  which  strike 
at  the  possession  and  distribution  of  property,  and  this 
of  course  means  through  the  instrumentalities  of  pub- 
lic administration,  the  taxing  power  of  the  community. 
The  impartial  looker  on  especially  if  he  be  a  spir- 
itual and  reasoning  being  sees  perfectly  clearly  that 
in  both  these  propositions  the  moral  imperative  is 
being  entirely  ignored.  Neither  party  really  believes 
in  it.  And  they  have  good  reason  in  the  prevailing 
practise  for  their  belief.  If  the  taxing  power  of  the 
community  is  an  utterly  non-moral  affair  and  if  the 
individual's  relation  to  this  commtmal  obligation  is 
one  which  has  no  place  in  his  moral  code,  it  is  clearly 
futile  to  expect  him  to  act  upon  any  other  principle 
than  that  of  personal  profit  and  well  being.  His 
attitude  is  one  of  watchful  observation  of  what  moves 
the  despoilers  are  going  to  make  next.  And  he  is 
perfectly  right  in  assuming  that  the  despoilers  have 
absolutely  no  respect  for,  or  confidence  in,  his  moral 
purposes.  They  believe  they  will  get  from  him  only 
what  they  exact  by  brute  force  of  legislation,  backed 
by  the  authority  of  the  law.  And  they  know  —  or  at 
least  believe  —  that  if  there  is  any  way  of  avoiding 
or  nullifying  the  law  after  it  has  been  enacted,  no 
efifort  will  be  spared  to  secure  this  end.  No  one  who 
is  familiar  with  the  practise  of  our  cities  in  the  matter 


90    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  taxes  will  deny  that  this  is  an  exact  description  of 
what  happens  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land.  But  can  a  society  in  which  such  a  condi- 
tion prevails  be  called  moral?  And  once  having  de- 
nied the  authority  of  the  moral  imperative  in  this, 
the  fundamental  appeal  which  it  makes,  the  entire 
moral  and  religious  framework  breaks  down  since 
loving  one's  neighbor  is  made  coordinate  with  loving 
God  in  the  Christian  rehgion  and  indeed  the  former 
interprets  the  latter  and  is  the  proof  of  its  existence. 
Having  denied  the  community  tie  all  other  ties  are 
broken  without  any  further  care  or  concern.  It  is 
therefore  easy  to  see  why  the  fundamental  reformers 
both  Christian  and  non  Christian  are  more  and  more 
coming  together  though  from  totally  different  causes. 
Thus  the  moral  breakdown  of  society  is  fully  ac- 
counted for  and  thoroughly  explained.  In  spite  of 
all  the  complicated  and  involved  explanations  which 
social  philosophers  and  reconstructors  have  given  us 
of  our  social  ills,  the  real  cause  is  not  so  far  removed 
from  the  ken  of  the  average  man  as  these  would  have 
us  believe.  It  is  found  in  the  elimination  of  the  claim 
of  religion,  at  the  point  and  in  the  social  relations 
where  it  most  clearly  and  distinctly  announces  its 
character  and  purpose.  Taxation  is  the  public  way  of 
saying  neighborliness.  Taxation  is  the  state's  method 
of  affirming  the  solidarity  and  brotherly  relation  of 
those  who  are  under  its  sway.  Failure  to  make  it 
just,  unwillingness  to  meet  it  fairly,  evasion  of  its 
proper  exactions,  imposition  of  it  for  purposes  of 
spoliation,  are  all  the  denial  of  the  principle  upon 


Religion  and  Taxation  91 

which  the  Christian  rehgion  rests,  namely  the  duty 
to  the  neighbor.  There  is  nothing  in  this  that  the 
ordinary  man  cannot  fully  understand  without  expert 
guidance  and  direction.  Strike  at  this  principle  and 
you  strike  at  the  root  of  all  helpful  and  possible  hu- 
man fellowship  and  cooperation  and  out  comes  the 
huge  monster,  the  giant  of  all  modern  iniquity  — 
Privilege.  And  privilege  is  like  all  other  vice,  to  be 
hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen.  But  seen  too  often  fa- 
miliar with  the  face,  we  first  endure,  then  pity,  then 
embrace  and  this  is  the  story  of  the  rise  and  culmina- 
tion of  the  tragedy  of  modern  civilization  —  certain 
classes  exemplifying  the  extremes  of  luxurious  idle- 
ness, self  indulgence  and  vice  —  vast  millions  wallow- 
ing in  helpless  pain,  shame  and  degradation.  No 
wonder  that  the  biblical  lightning  from  Heaven,  that 
struck  down  the  man  and  his  wife  who  lied  about 
the  communal  duty,  has  in  later  times  found  its  fear- 
ful counterpart  in  the  doctrine  of  violence,  fire  and 
sword.  Indeed  there  are  not  a  few  indications  that 
the  world  is  gradually  receding  back  in  to  a  settled 
belief  in  violence  and  force  as  the  only  means  of  re- 
dress for  grievances.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  we  are  hearing  otherwise  respectable 
persons,  and  persons  not  without  admirable  qualities, 
baldly  advocate  violence  as  a  substitute  for  law  and 
the  rule  of  the  mob  —  not  less  a  mob  when  sandbag- 
ging through  legislatures,  initiatives,  referendums  and 
recalls,  than  when  burning  down  palaces  and  pillaging 
and  looting  private  homes,  to  be  their  fixed  purpose  as 
a  means  of  securing  desired  changes.     It  is  neither 


92    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

accurate  nor  otherwise  sound  to  call  the  increasing 
militancy  merely  hysteria.  It  is  something  far  more 
serious.  It  is  indicative  of  the  moral  breakdown  of 
the  social  order,  a  bankruptcy  of  moral  resources, 
which  denotes  a  spiritual  poverty  which  is  not  at  all 
inherent  in  mere  hysterical  longing  for  social  changes. 
Genuine  belief  in  right  dealing  between  man  and  man, 
as  the  real  basis  of  civilized  society  has  broken  down. 
And  it  has  broken  down,  because  Christianity,  through 
its  organized  instrumentality,  the  Christian  church, 
did  not  dare  to  apply  its  fundamental  law  in  those 
things  which  expressed  the  brotherhood  of  man  in 
the  most  direct  and  intelligible  form.  This  most  di- 
rect and  simple  form  was  the  imposition  of  the  general 
public  burden,  in  the  form  of  taxes  —  which  however 
devised  have  generally  fallen  heaviest  upon  those  least 
able  to  bear  them,  have  most  generally  been  evaded 
by  those  best  able  to  stand  them  and  have  been  fought 
most  steadily  by  those  who  have  had  the  materials 
of  social  warfare,  namely,  quick  capital  which  could 
be  mobilized  to  resist  the  collection  of  the  community 
burden.  Of  course,  for  a  long  period,  this  was  not 
understood  but  being  understood  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  Christian  church  to  make  this  duty  clear  in  her 
manual  of  practical  instruction.  This  she  did  not  do 
and  the  loss  of  this  teaching  caused  the  duty  to  dis- 
appear from  the  thought  of  her  followers  and  grad- 
ually from  society  generally.  Soon  not  only  tax  lists 
but  all  social  institutions  felt  the  moral  loss. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  MORAL  DISTRUST  OF  SOCIAL  INSTI- 
TUTIONS 


"Preachers  have  preached,  and  people  have  prayed,  and  com- 
mittees have  been  formed,  and  inquiries  have  been  held,  and 
schemes  have  been  devised;  and,  though  I  will  not  say  that 
no  improvement  has  been  made,  I  do  say  that  much  of  the  im- 
provement that  has  been  made  in  the  conditions  of  labor  and 
the  scale  of  wages  has  been  none  of  the  Church's  doings,  but 
has  been  won  by  the  people  themselves,  not  only  without  the 
help  of  the  Church,  but  often  enough  in  determined  opposition 
to  it.  I  do  not  say  that  no  progress  has  been  made  toward  a 
solution  of  labor  problems,  but  I  do  say,  and  I  say  most  deliber- 
ately, that,  so  far  as  the  great  body  of  the  churches  of  this 
country  are  concerned,  they  are  not  one  step  nearer  any  real 
solution  than  they  were  twenty-five  years  ago,  and,  more  than 
this,  /  believe  it  to  be  a  demonstrable  fact  that  for  m-any  years 
past  there  have  been  going  on  changes  in  the  commercial  world 
tending  to  put  business  matters  farther  and  farther  beyond  the 
influence  of  the  churches  and  will  continue  to  do  so  while  the 
churches  adhere  to  their  present  lines.  .  .  .  There  is  a  strong, 
steady  drift  in  the  direction  of  great  joint  stock  enterprises 
managed  on  the  severest  system  of  commercial  principles,  which 
continually  render  it  increasingly  difficult  to  get  any  play  at  all 
for  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament.  To  this  inevitable  drift 
and  its  consequences  most  of  the  churches  seem  at  present  to  be 
quite  blind.  Sooner  or  later  they  will  awake  to  the  fact,  not  that 
the  power  of  Christianity  has  disappeared,  but  that  the  greatest 
application  of  its  essential  truth  that  the  world  has  ever  dreamed 
of  is  being  made  by  those  who  are  not  only  not  members  of 
Christian  societies,  but  do  not  even  call  themselves  by  the  Chris- 
tian name." 

"Commerce  and  Christianity"  (Anonymous) 

Macmillan,  1900. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    MORAL  DISTRUST   OF    SOCIAL   INSTITUTIONS 
I 

THREE-FOURTHS  of  the  movements  for  so- 
cial melioration  or  reformation  in  the  world 
are  based  upon  moral  distrust.  And  the  fact  that 
the  entire  civilized  world  is  seething  with  movements 
that  have  the  avowed  purpose  of  overturning  or  alter- 
ing one  or  another  of  our  social  institutions,  proves 
how  absolutely  the  unbelief  in  the  moral  purposes  of 
men  pervades  the  entire  framework  of  society.  This 
is  all  the  more  clearly  shown  by  the  fact  that,  broadly 
speaking,  men  do  not  take  kindly  to  changes.  A  very 
large  portion  of  society  is  composed  of  persons  who 
have  passed  the  age  where  they  want  anything  about 
them  substantially  altered.  They  have  made  their 
plans,  have  acquired  certain  fixed  habits  and  points 
of  view,  and  do  not  readily  think  or  act  outside  of 
the  received  channels.  This  is  not  only  natural  but 
is  necessary  to  the  stability  of  things.  Revolution- 
ary changes  do  not  generally  mean  progress.  Society 
does  not  advance  through  explosions,  though  the  ex- 
plosions do  sometimes  make  dear  to  persons  who 
would  not  otherwise  be  convinced,  that  something  is 
wrong.     The  natural  changes  in  the  individual  are 

95 


96    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

not  as  a  rule  revolutionary  in  character,  and  when 
they  are,  they  are  neither  healthful  nor  in  keeping  with 
normal  growth.  But  at  the  present  moment  the  at- 
mosphere is  revolutionary  everywhere  and  society  is 
like  a  huge  boil  ready  to  burst.  And  if  we  look  a 
little  into  the  nature  of  this  atmosphere  and  its 
creative  causes,  we  shall  find  them  all  springing  from 
the  source  indicated  in  the  previous  chapter.  Moral 
confidence  has  broken  down.  There  is  hardly  an  in- 
stitution which  has  evolved  in  the  development  of 
mankind  which  is  not  now  under  fierce  criticism. 
We  are  hearing  uttered  freely  to-day  what  we  hardly 
dared  to  think  a  generation  ago.  The  most  serious 
and  important  relations  of  life  are  attacked  with  a 
ruthlessness  and  recklessness  which  would  not  have 
been  possible  in  the  youth  of  men  not  yet  ready  to  be 
called  old.  The  church  as  previously  shown  has  al- 
ways been  an  object  of  attack.  But  to-day  the  fam- 
ily, every  form  of  property,  education  as  represented 
by  schools  and  colleges,  legislatures  and  other  law 
making  bodies,  courts  and  business  are  all  enduring 
a  fierce  fire  of  relentless,  persistent  and  scathing  crit- 
icism. 

Nor  is  it  any  longer  true  that  the  criticism  comes 
from  those  who  may  fairly  be  called  revolutionaries. 
Some  of  the  severest  critics  of  the  church  love  her 
and  her  ways,  and  are  in  her  service  and  are  heroically 
trying  to  make  her  see  her  mission  in  the  light  of  the 
new  social  conscience,  and  the  new  conception  of  her 
mission  which  is  after  all  merely  going  back  to  her 
fundamental  theses.     The  criticism  of  the  law  comes 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions    97 

not  only  from  those  who  have  suffered  from  its  delays 
and  its  maladministration,  but  from  high  and  noble 
souls  who  still  think  of  the  legal  profession  as  an 
instrument  of  securing  justice  between  man  and  man. 
No  severer  things  have  been  said  of  law  and  the  legal 
calling  than  have  been  said  by  lawyers  themselves. 
There  is  a  nation  wide  movement  going  on  to  secure 
in  the  practise  of  medicine  what  to  a  layman  looks  like 
an  effort  to  secure  the  practise  of  elementary  moral- 
ity. Representative  institutions  are  attacked  every- 
where, because  it  is  believed  to  be  next  to  impossible 
to  get  representatives  who  will  properly  protect  the 
people's  interests.  Business  is  being  attacked  with  a 
virulence  which  reminds  one  of  the  passionate  denun- 
ciations preceding  the  French  Revolution.  If  there 
is  any  social  institution  which  is  not  under  such  fiery 
criticism,  it  merely  means  that  there  has  not  been  time 
to  reach  it.  The  prevailing  literature  is  the  literature 
of  unbelief  in  the  moral  soundness  of  humanity 
whether  it  be  in  the  best  selling  novels,  the  most  widely 
circulated  newspapers,  the  most  resounding  legislative 
assaults  on  business,  the  most  drastic  legislation,  the 
most  thoroughgoing  arraignment  of  education,  or  the 
most  poignant  cry  for  relief  from  some  open  social 
sore.  The  universal  muckraking  so-called  would  not 
be  possible  if  it  were  not  that  everybody  is  prepared 
to  believe  the  worst  about  everybody  else.  The  one 
note  which  you  never  hear,  and  which  if  uttered  would 
excite  almost  universal  derision,  is  the  note  that  you 
can  and  must  renovate  the  moral  convictions  of  man- 
kind, if  you  wish  to  improve  the  social  conditions  of 


98    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

men.  Panaceas  are  as  plentiful  as  leaves  in  summer. 
Of  this  more  later.  But  for  the  present  let  this  suf- 
fice that  the  one  universal  note  is  the  note  of  moral 
distrust. 

It  is  the  fashion  in  some  circles  to  call  all  this  out- 
cry by  hard  names.  It  is  the  fashion  to  say  unpleas- 
ant things  about  the  masses  who  are  thus  bawling 
through  the  world  their  unbelief  in  anybody  or  any- 
thing. You  cannot  gather  together  even  the  follow- 
ers of  any  special  social  cult  without  finding,  before 
very  long,  that  while  they  unite  in  opposing  their 
enemies  they  do  not  believe  in  each  other  either. 
There  is  not  a  social  program  which  has  not  its  list 
of  traitors  and  betrayers  as  well  as  its  heroes  and 
saints.  The  heads  of  two  great  labor  organizations, 
while  these  lines  are  being  written,  are  standing  on 
the  same  platform,  calling  each  other  all  sorts  of  hard 
names  while  it  is  stated  fifteen  thousand  dollars  of 
wages  are  being  wasted  by  the  delay  in  the  business, 
that  these  two  leaders  may  tell  the  truth  about  each 
other,  accompanied  by  the  cheers  and  hisses  of  the 
convention  where  they  are  speaking.  A  great  mining 
strike  is  in  progress  which  is  challenging  the  moral 
strength  of  two  widely  different  classes  of  society,  is 
under  investigation  by  Congress  and  has  the  usual 
accompaniments  of  such  an  affair,  but  the  solidarity 
of  the  labor  end  of  it  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that 
the  leaders  are  yelling  "  drunkard,"  "  liar,"  "  grafter  " 
and  the  like  at  each  other  on  the  platform  where  they 
should  be  considering  what  to  do  for  the  suffering 
thousands. 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions    99 

Now  these  people  are  agreed  about  their  opponents. 
But  they  do  not  trust  each  other.  But  if  you  look 
at  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale,  you  see  similar 
things.  You  find  at  this  same  writing,  persons  who 
have  the  management  of  high  and  great  interests,  in- 
volving the  happiness  of  many  thousands  of  persons, 
doing  exactly  the  same  thing  and  at  this  present  mo- 
ment, a  professor  in  one  of  the  leading  law  schools 
of  the  country  has  been  forced  by  the  revelations  at- 
tendant upon  a  railroad  investigation  to  resign  his 
position  in  a  great  university  and  have  it  instantane- 
ously accepted,  by  reason  of  the  dubious  moral  posi- 
tion in  which  these  revelations  placed  him.  Thus  in 
the  university  at  the  top  and  in  the  labor  convention 
at  the  bottom,  you  have  substantially  the  same  phe- 
nomena. It  is  likely  that  the  professor  in  question  is 
neither  better  nor  worse  than  most  of  his  colleagues. 
But  in  the  present  temper  of  the  people  it  is  an  abso- 
lute impossibility  that  he  should  get  anything  re- 
sembling a  fair  review  of  his  case.  All  you  have  to 
do  is  to  shout  "  grafter "  and  the  welkin  will  ring. 
But  the  impressive  thing  is  that  nobody  is  exempt 
from  this  universal  suspicion.  Men  have  no  longer 
any  moral  belief  in  each  other.  Nothing  is  taken  at 
its  face  value.  On  all  sides,  in  everything,  no  matter 
what  the  purpose,  what  the  interest,  what  the  activity, 
nobody  believes  in  the  possibility  of  pure  moral  action. 
Universal  distrust  is  the  prevailing  note  of  our  social 
life.  Now  whatever  this  means  or  however  it  came 
about,  it  is  this  which  constitutes  the  real  social  ques- 
tion.    It    makes    little    difference    whether    you    are 


100    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

dealing  with  trade  agreements  or  party  conventions, 
nobody  believes  that  you  are  acting  from  pure  mo- 
tives. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Unbelief  in  the  purity  of  mo- 
tive might  be  tolerated,  but  with  it  has  come  the  un- 
belief in  the  efficacy  of  pure  motives  if  we  could  have 
them.  The  result  is  that  on  every  side  measures  mul- 
tiply which  have  for  their  purpose  the  removal  of  the 
element  of  confidence  of  anybody,  in  anybody  else. 
That  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  multitude  of  measures 
in  the  interest  of  what  is  called  pure  democracy.  It 
may  be  predicted  with  no  hesitation  whatever,  that 
the  pure  democracy  thus  sought  unless  it  becomes  at 
the  same  time  something  moral,  and  brings  about  cer- 
tain moral  changes  in  the  people,  will  prove  as  great 
a  humbug  as  some  of  the  institutions  which  the  pure 
democrats  seek  to  replace.  But  that  is  another  mat- 
ter. What  the  pure  democracy  aims  at  is,  to  get 
something  which  means  that  it  will  not  be  necessary 
to  trust  anybody,  because  the  checks  and  recalls  and 
hamperings  which  will  be  placed  upon  those  they  are 
designed  to  reach  will  be  such  that  there  will  be  no 
possibility  for  discretion  and  judgment  and  a  wise 
balancing  of  probabilities  —  absolutely  the  highest 
function  of  the  human  mind.  The  intellectual  ab- 
surdity of  most  of  these  things  is  almost  as  pitiful 
as  their  moral  poverty.  But  it  is  at  least  logical.  If 
you  trust  nobody  then  confer  nothing  that  involves 
trusteeship.  The  aim,  morally  viewed,  appears  to  be 
to  tie  everybody  hand  and  foot,  so  that  the  usual 
confidences  between  man  and  man  or  men  and  men 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     lOi 

will  not  be  necessary.  In  the  meantime  the  great 
trusteeship  that  which  makes  man  his  brother's 
keeper  is  absolutely  overlooked.  Or  perhaps  does  it 
mean  that  we  shall  substitute  a  universal  prison  house 
for  our  universal  freedom  and  begin  the  whole  proc- 
ess all  over  again  by  winding  up  in  general  anarchy 
till  the  strong  man  arrives  who  will  begin  again  with 
elemental  force! 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  have  been  great 
provocatives  for  this  state  of  mind.  The  astounding 
series  of  disclosures  of  the  last  twenty  years  have 
shaken  thousands  of  men  who  were  not  prepared  to 
believe  in  the  depravity  which  our  numerous  investi- 
gations have  uncovered.  Nor  have  these  disclosures 
been  confined  to  any  particular  area  or  social  class. 
The  corruptions  of  the  manufacturers  in  Washington 
have  their  parallel  in  the  dynamiters  at  Los  Angeles. 
The  insurance  investigations  involving  the  princes  of 
high  finance  are  matched  by  the  gunmen  of  the  "  sys- 
tem "  in  the  police  department.  All  this  has  borne 
its  natural  fruit.  The  reversion  to  the  strong  man 
theory,  which  is  simply  the  reversion  to  the  theory  of 
force,  is  most  clearly  shown  at  this  moment,  in  that 
it  is  seriously  proposed  to  alter  the  laws  of  a  great 
state  in  order  to  induce  a  particular  man  to  accept  a 
public  office!  Thus  you  have  again  the  ludicrous 
juxtaposition  of  Csesarism  and  Pure  Democracy! 
What  makes  this  possible?  The  utter  loss  of  confi- 
dence! Everywhere  and  always  the  constant  factor 
in  the  social  question  is  the  overwhelming,  discour- 
aging fact  that  nobody  believes  in  anybody  else.     It 


102    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

shows  how  complete  the  moral  breakdown  of  society 
is.  A  similar  phenomenon  is  displayed  in  the  manner 
in  which  the  moral  heroes  of  to-day  are  the  blacklegs 
of  to-morrow.  There  is  no  more  dangerous  position 
for  any  man  to  occupy  to-day  than  to  be  a  popular 
idol.  The  history  of  popular  idols,  for  the  most  part 
in  recent  years,  is  simply  the  narrative  of  how  inev- 
itably every  man  who  is  in  any  sense  public  becomes 
the  target  for  the  universal  distrust.  As  with  men  so 
with  institutions.  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious,  but 
at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  convincing  of  evi- 
dences, that  there  is  nowhere  a  moral  balance  or 
standard  —  only  successive  enthronements  followed 
by  successive  dethronements  —  nothing  that  indicates 
moral  judgments  and  only  the  volcanic  revolutionary 
rage  which  has  lost  its  sources  of  moral  and  spiritual 
authority.  If  it  be  alleged  that  this  condition  is  not 
new  the  answer  must  be  "  Why  have  we  not  out- 
grown it  ?  " 

II 

Perhaps  the  most  widespread  evidence  of  the  moral 
breakdown  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  is  that 
which  reveals  itself  in  connection  with  the  attitude 
toward  business,  especially  what  is  called  "  Big  Busi- 
ness." Now  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  business 
as  such  which  should  cause  it  to  become  the  symbol 
for  the  most  general  and  thorough  going  moral  dis- 
pleasure from  which  it  is  now  suffering  and  the  fierce 
attacks  which  it  is  receiving  from  all  sides.  Indeed 
one  might  imagine  that  business  being  the  direct  inter- 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     103 

change  of  commercial  commodities  and  for  the  most 
part  bringing  men  into  relations  of  acquaintance  and 
fellowship,  personal  understanding  and  appreciation, 
would  be  the  one  sphere  of  operations  where  it  would 
be  easiest  to  trust  men  because  knowing  them  person- 
ally and  having  the  range  of  intercourse  extend  over 
long  period,  affording  the  opportunity  for  careful 
and  just  judgments.  But  this  does  not  describe  busi- 
ness. Business  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  the  produc- 
tion, exchange  and  distribution  of  commodities.  It 
is  a  huge  fabric  involving  the  issue  of  stock  of  vast 
enterprises,  the  investment  of  great  sums  of  money, 
the  banking  of  these  sums  and  a  great  variety  of 
other  transactions.  All  this  has  come  about  naturally 
with  the  growth  and  extension  of  commerce.  It 
would  seem  again  that  this  extension,  involving  as  it 
does,  at  every  step,  personal  transactions  of  individual 
men  and  hence  their  personal  acquaintance,  would  nat- 
urally expand  the  area  of  personal  confidence  and 
friendship.  Judged  by  simple  standards,  one  might 
suppose  that  the  business  of  the  land  would  be  its 
solidest  moral  underpinning.  But  what  do  we  see? 
"  Big  Business  "  connotes  to  the  public  mind  the  Devil 
and  all  his  works.  It  means  every  wrong  that  it  is 
possible  to  perpetrate,  through  every  species  of  dis- 
honesty, from  the  rigging  of  weighing  scales  to  the 
juggling  of  stock  sales.  There  is  not  a  single  crime 
in  the  entire  calendar  of  possible  iniquity  which  the 
business  records  of  the  country,  as  now  laid  bare,  do 
not  contain. 

It  is  the  colossal  irony  of  this  situation  that  these 


104    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

huge  institutions  or  combinations  bear  the  general 
title  of  "  trusts."  We  are  authoritatively  told,  I  be- 
lieve, that  they  are  not  technically  "  trusts  "  but  this 
is  what  they  are  commonly  called.  Now  a  "  trust " 
is  something  which  implies  confidence,  a  real  or  quasi- 
fiduciary  relation.  If  it  means  anything,  it  means 
that  somebody  is  believing  in  somebody  else,  to  per- 
form certain  acts  for  the  profit  and  interest  of  those 
who  beheve  in  him.  That  the  nation  should  be  legis- 
lating with  all  its  might  against  "  trusts,"  therefore, 
is  one  of  those  exquisite  and  delicious  ironies  which 
must  give  every  cynic  in  Christendom  a  chance  to 
chuckle.  And  when  you  add  the  usual  accompani- 
ment of  "  predatory  "  making  this  thing  of  confidence 
and  reposeful  belief  that  your  trustee  is  thinking  about 
you  and  your  interest  a  "  Predatory  Trust "  the  de- 
lightful contradiction  in  terms,  joined  to  the  ironical 
attitude  toward  a  thing  which  is  supposed  to  represent 
—  confidence  and  fiduciary  obligation  —  makes  for 
positive  hilarity.  But  the  deadly  earnestness  in  which 
the  business  of  the  land  is  being  assailed  forbids  hilar- 
ity. If  it  is  a  joke,  it  is  a  joke  on  all  of  us,  because 
we  are  all  a  part  of  it,  from  the  university  which  re- 
ceives endowments  from  these  predatory  gentlemen 
to  the  worker  who  is  willing  to  stifle  his  wrath  against 
capitalism  in  general  under  the  healing  influence  of  an 
old  age  pension  providently  provided  to  furnish  an 
exhibit  of  "  our  contented  employees  "  or  an  elaborate 
welfare  establishment,  in  which  billiards,  cheap 
lunches,  recreation  rooms  and  dance  halls,  gently  but 
firmly   reestablish  feudal  bonds   under  the  guise   of 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     105 

benevolence  and  social  interest.  It  is  true  we  are 
hearing  something  about  profit  sharing  lately  made 
spectacular  by  certain  splendidly  alluring  experiments 
in  which  the  dramatics  have  not  been  neglected.  But 
the  facts  remain  the  same.  To  be  in  big  business  is 
to  be  a  partner  of  the  devil !  That  is  the  common  be- 
lief and  understanding  of  all  large  enterprises.  That 
is  the  view  which  prevails  in  Congress  and  prevails 
there  only  because  it  prevails  everywhere  else.  Large 
enterprises  and  criminality  are  so  firmly  allied  in  the 
public  mind  that  few  any  longer  attempt  to  point  out 
the  possibility  of  error,  while  demagogues  flourish 
and  fatten  on  the  popular  distrust  and  unbelief  in 
successful  men  of  business. 

Now  commerce  is  the  lifeblood  of  civilization. 
Reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  it  involves  moral  qualities 
which  are  absolutely  necessary  to  its  existence.  As 
before  stated,  it  should  afford  the  field  where  the 
moral  qualities  of  civilization  should  find  their  fullest 
and  freest  expression.  The  participants  in  it  know 
each  other.  They  have  the  means  of  making  them- 
selves understood  and  known.  They  have  the  natural 
incentives  to  acquire  the  good  will,  the  confidence  and 
favor  of  their  contemporaries.  Yet  after  all  these 
centuries,  it  is  hailed  as  the  great  triumph  of  the 
period,  that  we  have  learned  how  to  curb  the  pred- 
atory trusts  and  run  to  earth  the  robber  barons,  so- 
called,  who  have  been  despoiling  the  masses  and  get- 
ting rich  at  the  expense  of  the  life  and  happiness  of 
their  fellow  creatures !  What  shall  be  said  of  business 
toward  which  it  is  considered  a  mark  of  social  heroism 


io6    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

to  fight  and  to  assail  which  is  the  pathway  to  political 
preferment?  What  broader  or  more  conclusive  sign 
could  possibly  be  desired  of  the  utter  loss  of  moral  soli- 
darity among  men  than  that  such  a  state  of  things 
should  actually  exist?  The  past  history  of  trade  con- 
tains some  of  the  finest  illustrations  of  the  value  and 
power  of  high  moral  worth  that  can  be  found  in  the 
history  of  man.  But  whoso  in  this  day  and  generation 
calls  it  the  hardest  names  and  brands  it  with  the  most 
opprobrious  epithets  becomes  ipso  facto  a  social  lib- 
erator and  a  tribune  of  the  people!  Why  is  this  so? 
It  is  because  in  the  background  of  the  common  con- 
sciousness there  is  the  deep  and  sinister  unbelief  in 
the  integrity  of  business  men.  So  much  has  been 
revealed  that  justifies  this  unbelief,  that  the  step  to 
well  nigh  universal  unbelief  is  not  difficult.  Perhaps 
the  consciousness  of  moral  deficiency  on  the  part  of 
the  mass  of  men  themselves  makes  it  easy  to  believe 
in  the  dereliction  of  the  rest.  But  in  any  case  what 
is  certain  is,  that  no  great  corporation  can  to-day  get  a 
fair  consideration  of  its  affairs  at  the  hands  of  the 
public.  If  an  investigation  reveals  nothing  preda- 
tory, the  verdict  is  not  one  of  innocence.  The  belief 
is  merely  that  sufficient  skill  has  been  employed  to 
prevent  the  facts  from  becoming  known.  This  is  be- 
cause the  very  agencies  of  investigation  are  themselves 
under  the  same  suspicion  and  distrust.  It  may  well 
be  that  great  business  corporations  to-day  that  mean 
to  do  exactly  the  proper  thing,  so  far  as  the  law  is 
concerned,  are  not  able  to  do  so,  because  they  cannot 
get  a  fair  hearing  in  the  public  mind  and  the  instru- 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     107 

mentalities  by  which  such  a  fair  hearing  is  obtained, 
are  themselves  under  a  similar  form  of  assault.  It 
is  this  fact  which  makes  the  unrest  so  fearful  to  con- 
template. The  disease  is  not  one  that  lies  in  admin- 
istration or  laws  or  business  practices.  It  is  one 
which  has  to  do  with  the  fundamental  moral  stand- 
ards by  which  we  are  conducting  the  affairs  of  civi- 
lization. Now  there  is  but  one  agency  that  makes 
moral  standards  especially  fundamental  moral  stand- 
ards its  business  and  that  is  the  Christian  church. 
But  the  church  has  had  little  or  nothing  to  say  on  these 
matters.  Having  excluded  communal  obligation  from 
her  program  of  instruction,  how  could  she  deal  with 
industrial  justice  or  business  morality?  In  fact 
morality  and  religion  have  been  excluded  from  busi- 
ness in  exactly  the  same  way  in  which  they  have  been 
excluded  from  taxation.  Where  there  has  been  no 
instruction  how  could  the  result  be  otherwise? 

That  this  diagnosis  is  correct  may  be  judged  from 
the  universality  of  the  result.  The  convicted  business 
spoliators  include  every  type,  manufacturer,  banker, 
tradesman,  stock  operator,  contractor,  transportation 
company  and  all  their  subsidiaries.  There  is  no  differ- 
ence, every  class  has  contributed  its  share  of  the  male- 
factors. The  moral  poverty  of  the  entire  fabric  is 
clear.  Nor  is  there  any  special  differentiation  be- 
tween these  criminals  on  the  score  of  their  so-called 
religion.  They  have  been  of  all  denominations  and 
every  type  of  religious  profession.  Nor  has  their  edu- 
cation seemed  to  make  any  particular  difference  be- 
cause they  move  over  the  whole  range  from  university 


io8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

heads  to  illiterates.  The  one  common  element 
through  it  all  is  the  want  of  morality.  And  the  at- 
titude of  all  these  toward  each  other  shows  perfectly 
that  conviction  in  this  special  field  is  no  loss  of  moral 
standing.  The  number  of  business  men  of  high 
standing  throughout  the  land  who  have  paid  fines  for 
lawless  practices,  sometimes  willingly,  sometimes  be- 
ing convicted  after  due  process  of  law,  is  legion.  But 
these  gentlemen  have  not  suffered  any  loss  of  busi- 
ness standing.  On  the  contrary  it  was  lately  held 
that  such  a  conviction  was  a  sort  of  badge  of  honor, 
because  it  connoted  a  certain  standard  of  prominence 
and  reputability,  to  be  singled  out  for  attack.  Guilt 
had  not  and  has  not  yet  become  personal!  It  would 
be  grossly  unfair  to  say  that  these  men  are  to  be  reck- 
oned roughly  in  the  criminal  class.  What  has  hap- 
pened is  that  they  have  not  considered  their  operations 
"  on  the  street "  as  having  anything  to  do  with  their 
morals  or  religion.  They  argued  and  the  argument 
is  often  heard  that  they  had  no  commission  to  do  busi- 
ness on  any  other  plan  than  that  usual  to  the 
"  street."  That  simply  meant  immoral  and  not  in- 
frequently illegal  business. 

Ill 

Turn  now  from  the  business  situation  to  the  gov- 
ernment. It  would  be  quite  superfluous  to  attempt 
even  a  casual  review  of  the  legislative  corruption 
which  has  formed  one  of  the  most  sickening  chapters 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     109 

of  American  history  since  the  Civil  War.  No  state 
has  been  immune  from  the  general  cloud  of  infamy, 
as  related  to  the  misuse  of  the  powers  of  government 
for  private  ends.  Investigations  are  now  a  permanent 
feature  of  our  political  life.  If  it  is  not  in  one  de- 
partment it  is  in  another.  If  it  is  not  in  the  munici- 
pal government,  then  it  is  in  the  state  government. 
No  state  has  a  penitentiary  which  does  not  have  as  a 
permanent  resident  some  corrupt  public  official  who 
has  been  caught.  The  offenses  include  every  depart- 
ment of  administration.  Legislation  has  been  bought 
and  sold.  State  institutions  have  been  corrupted  and 
made  the  subject  of  private  barter  through  contracts 
for  supplies  and  the  distribution  of  profitable  jobs. 
State  highways  are  made  the  agencies  for  the  exaction 
of  huge  corruption  funds,  which  are  in  turn  utilized 
to  corrupt  elections  and  dole  out  offices  to  faithful 
henchmen.  The  beneficiaries  of  the  carnival  of  crim- 
inality range  from  supreme  justices  and  governors  to 
the  humblest  laborers  in  the  streets.  The  bribers  and 
the  bribed  once  more  are  of  every  sort  and  kind  of 
men,  no  social  class  being  without  its  fair  share  of 
the  recipients  of  the  spoil.  Corruption  of  every  kind 
infests  everything  the  public  purse  pays  for.  The 
rare  exceptions  are  so  few  that  they  dp  not  figure  in 
the  general  total.  Our  chromo  democracy  is  the  stu- 
pidest, most  inefficient  and  ludicrous  exhibition  of 
moral  imbecility  and  irresponsibility  the  world  has 
ever  seen  when  its  unexampled  opportunities  and  re- 
sources are  taken  into  account.     No  public  work  is 


110    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

without  its  rake  off  and  its  political  parasite.  This 
does  not  have  to  be  proved.  It  is  the  common  knowl- 
edge of  all  men. 

Yet  with  all  this  before  us  it  would  be  absurd  to 
claim  that  it  represents  the  facts  as  they  actually  are. 
The  public  business  gets  itself  done;  the  machinery  of 
administration  keeps  on  going;  great  social  and  other 
improvements  in  which  all  men  are  sharers  have  been 
instituted ;  much  remedial  and  advanced  legislation  has 
been  passed;  the  law  has  steadily  been  improved  and 
made  to  operate  more  equitably  and  many  other  things 
have  been  accomplished,  which  greatly  outweigh  the 
grave  miscarriages  of  justice  which  have  been  out- 
lined. But  all  these  things  are  of  no  account  in  the 
general  reckoning  which  hastens  to  express  its  unbe- 
lief in  the  representative  system,  because  it  does  not 
believe  in  anything.  What  does  the  initiative  mean 
when  it  is  analyzed?  It  means  that  the  people's  rep- 
resentatives cannot  be  relied  upon  to  respond  to  the 
public  demand  for  such  legislation  as  they  desire,  a 
perfectly  absurd  supposition,  when  it  is  remembered 
that  these  very  representatives  are  chosen  directly 
from  the  ranks  of  the  people  by  another  supposititious 
instrument  of  pure  democracy  called  the  primary !  If 
a  legislature  chosen  by  direct  primary  will  not  do  what 
it  is  asked  to  do,  then  we  are  in  a  parlous  state  indeed 
and  this  seems  to  be  the  widespread  feeling.  What 
does  a  referendum  mean?  Exactly  the  same  thing 
that  you  cannot  trust  the  man  whom  you  have  your- 
self selected  and  must  keep  him  in  fear  of  your  rebuke 
or  reversal  by  exercising  supervisory  judgment  upon 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     ill 

his  public  acts.  If  there  is  anything  more  inherently 
stupid  or  illogical  than  these  things,  it  would  be  hard 
to  name  it.  But  it  is  not  the  purpose  here  to  discuss 
that  proposition.  It  is  the  fact  that  here  again  you 
have  the  manifestation  of  the  moral  breakdown  of 
the  institution  of  government.  Thousands  of  persons 
want  to  elect  a  man  and  then  keep  him  under  lock  and 
key  lest  he  exercise  his  own  judgment  and  act  accord- 
ing to  his  lights  on  a  given  matter  of  legislation. 

It  is  to  be  noted  once  more  that  nobody  suggests 
greater  care  in  the  selection  of  candidates,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  direct  method  has  not  substantially 
affected  the  quality  of  the  political  candidates  for  of- 
fice. It  does  not  occur  to  any  one  that  we  must  get 
persons  of  high  character  and  moral  reliability  and 
then  let  them  settle  the  questions  at  issue  by  fair  and 
honest  discussion  of  their  merits.  No  indeed,  it  is 
the  machinery  which  must  be  altered.  Hence  the  de- 
vices for  changing  the  system  and  methods  of  govern- 
ment are  without  number,  crowding  for  public  atten- 
tion and  adoption.  This  is  most  clearly  shown  in  the 
kaleidoscopic  changes  in  municipal  government  which 
have  ranged  all  the  way  from  the  irresponsible  party 
boss  to  the  responsible  party  boss,  in  the  shape  of  a 
city  manager  showing  that  it  was  not  "  bossism  "  that 
was  objected  to,  but  the  character  of  the  boss.  Be- 
tween these  two  extremes  identical  in  principle,  at 
least,  we  have  single  chamber  schemes,  double  cham- 
ber schemes,  commission  schemes,  revisionary  and 
supervisory  bodies,  boards  of  control  and  what  not, 
all  indicating  thorough  and  absolute  discontent  and 


112    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

moral  distrust.  But  the  changes,  not  a  single  one  of 
them,  emphasize  character  as  the  one  thing  needful. 
It  never  seems  to  occur  to  any  one  that  anybody  will 
be  trustworthy  and  hence  devices  to  eliminate  the  ele- 
ment which  calls  for  confidence.  The  backing  and 
filling  in  the  experiments  made  by  American  munici- 
palities are  the  very  best  proof  imaginable  that  it  is 
the  electorate  itself  that  is  to  blame.  A  city  decides 
to  place  responsibility  by  giving  great  powers  to  its 
mayor.  Straightway  the  city  instead  of  electing  that 
"  responsible  citizen  "  who  was  expected  to  come  for- 
ward under  this  plan,  elects  a  skilful  and  thorough 
going  politician  of  not  too  conspicuous  moral  eleva- 
tion and  he  perfects,  by  reason  of  the  great  power  con- 
ferred upon  him,  the  most  powerful  machine  the  city 
has  ever  known.  Then  the  city  charter  is  amended 
again!     And  this  is  the  story  over  and  over. 

What  is  really  at  work  here?  What  is  shown  is 
the  melancholy  fact  that  there  is  no  sense  of  security 
in  anybody.  The  moral  collapse  is  about  as  complete 
as  it  well  can  be  when  thousands  of  what  are  supposed 
to  be  the  most  enlightened  and  best  educated  citizens 
in  city  and  state  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  go  to 
the  polls  and  vote.  "  The  whole  business  is  rotten 
anyway  and  what  is  the  use  ? "  that  represents  the 
attitude.  Now  it  must  be  evident  that  no  amount  of 
charter  tinkering  in  cities,  or  initiatives  and  referen- 
dums,  or  recalls  will  ever  meet  this  problem  adequately. 
Machinery  is  everywhere  necessary  and  improvable. 
But  it  is  everywhere  subordinate  to  something  else 
and  that  something  else  is  the  moral  purpose  of  the 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     113 

community.  A  city  which  is  morally  bankrupt  will 
not  have  good  government  if  a  committee  of  archan- 
gels frame  its  charter.  A  state  in  which  a  third  of 
the  citizens  do  not  vote  and  which  having  before  them 
the  choice  of  representatives  for  a  legislature  and 
choose  persons  upon  whom  they  need  the  check  of 
initiative  and  referendum  and  recall,  will  not  have 
sound  state  administration  if  the  plan  of  government 
be  devised  by  a  commission  of  sages  and  saints  com- 
bined. No  government  can  exceed  in  worth  and 
efifectiveness  the  moral  quality  of  its  constituent  body 
and  what  our  American  people  need  more  than  any  im- 
provement in  political  machinery  is  an  awakening  of 
political  morality  which  means  awakening  in  common 
morality  based  on  religion.  It  is  here  where  the 
culpability  of  the  Christian  church  again  appears. 
Politics  has  been  taboo  in  the  American  churches  un- 
til very  recently.  But  if  there  is  anything  which 
touches  a  man's  moral  interests  more  closely  than  the 
administration  of  the  laws  under  which  he  must  live 
and  move  and  have  his  daily  being  which  prescribes 
for  him  the  public  standards  of  justice,  truth,  decency 
and  morality,  one  wonders  what  it  is.  Yet  the  mak- 
ing of  these  things  is  what  we  call  politics. 

But  by  common  consent  the  religious  leaders  of  the 
land  have  been  kept  out  of  the  political  arena  and  ofif 
the  political  platform.  A  notable  change  is  taking 
place  and  where  it  is  taking  place  the  signs  are  notable 
because  they  indicate  that  there  is  a  glimmering  per- 
ception of  the  truth  that  government  after  all  is  inti- 
mately  connected   with  moral   behavior   and   moral 


114    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

character.  The  various  clergymen  and  priests 
throughout  the  United  States,  who  have  in  recent 
years  been  elected  as  mayors,  have  been  chosen  simply 
for  the  reason  that  they  seemed  to  stand  for  a  moral 
conception  of  government.  Perhaps  such  a  proceed- 
ing was  wise  though  it  may  be  doubted.  But  in  any 
case  the  choice  of  a  man  whose  only  business  is  the 
accentuation  of  the  moral  duties  of  life  is  significant. 
That  is,  however,  what  the  entire  country  needs.  And 
the  creation  of  this  ideal  and  the  enforcement  of  it  in 
its  instruction  and  practise  is  the  business  of  Chris- 
tianity. Very  poor  machinery  of  government  is  very 
efficient  when  the  men  who  operate  it  are  persons  of 
character  and  inflexible  integrity  and  honesty.  That 
is  the  fact  which  deserves  at  the  present  moment  most 
to  be  emphasized. 

IV 

Nor  is  the  universal  distrust  much  less  marked 
when  we  come  to  examine  the  feeling  with  reference 
to  the  most  important  of  all  our  social  institutions 
namely  our  courts.  The  question  is  not  now  with 
reference  to  mere  legal  procedure  in  which  there  has 
been  regular  progress  and  such  progress  has  been 
steady  throughout  a  long  period  of  years,  though  even 
this  part  of  the  discussion  is  full  of  moral  significance. 
What  we  are  now  considering  has  to  do  with  the  moral 
influence  and  authority  of  the  ordinary  judicial  proc- 
esses as  the  masses  of  men  come  into  contact  with 
them  and  as  they  see  them  working.  The  indictment 
here  likewise  is  bitter  and  severe  and  has  much  to 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     115 

justify  it.  An  ex-president  of  the  United  States, 
himself  a  judge  of  long  experience  and  of  high  stand- 
ing, is  authority  for  the  statement  that  justice  is  too 
often  on  the  side  of  the  longest  purse.  He  himself 
states  that  it  is  high  time  for  the  courts  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  the  social  aspirations  of  the  people  and  that 
the  law  should  be  interpreted  by  judges  who  know  this 
aspiration  and  sympathize  with  it.  But  this  is  a  very 
moderate  statement  of  the  case.  It  is  not  an  exag- 
geration to  say  that  most  men  do  not  regard  the 
administration  of  justice  by  our  ordinary  courts  as 
an  honest  proceeding  in  the  sense  in  which  a  man  has 
to  be  honest  to  hold  an  ordinary  salaried  position. 
And  there  are  innumerable  instances  to  warrant  the 
ordinary  man  in  holding  an  opinion  tinctured  very 
strongly  with  this  suspicion.  In  the  greatest  state  of 
the  Union  supreme  court  justiceships  are  commonly 
believed  to  be  purchasable  from  political  bosses  who 
hold  the  nominations  for  sale.  While  this  is  being 
written  one  such  boss  who  made  such  a  sale  has  been 
condemned  to  state's  prison  for  this  offense.  Cam- 
paign contributions  by  these  judges  are  commonly 
believed  to  be  made  to  the  corruptest  political  organi- 
zation in  America.  The  henchmen  of  this  organiza- 
tion are  believed  to  receive  their  reward  in  the  shape 
of  appointments  as  masters  and  other  court  officers 
for  hearing  cases  and  the  like.  In  other  states  the 
Supreme  Court  decisions  on  certain  subjects  are  held 
to  be  worthless  as  law  because  the  court  is  known  to 
be  under  certain  corporate  influences.  The  innumer- 
able delays  and  subversions  of  justice  are  by  many 


li6    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

held  to  indicate  that  the  employment  of  certain 
counsel  of  known  political  influence  and  standing  is 
the  decisive  element  in  litigation  in  the  courts  where 
these  practise.  And  there  are  many  instances  where 
this  has  been  proved  in  investigations,  impeachments 
and  other  efforts  at  deliverance. 

True  as  all  this  is,  once  again  it  must  be  added  that 
all  these  facts  do  not  destroy  the  equally  important 
fact  that  the  vast  mass  of  the  litigation  in  our  courts 
is  adjudicated  with  substantial  justice.  The  excep- 
tions are  impressive  and  disquieting,  but  relatively  not 
numerous  enough  to  impeach  the  entire  system,  gross 
as  some  of  the  miscarriages  of  justice  have  been. 
But  we  are  faced  with  the  same  temper  of  mind  and 
the  same  deep  and  unyielding  unbelief  in  the  integ- 
rity of  our  main  instrument  of  personal  and  social 
justice.  If  the  moral  authority  of  the  courts  is  gone 
it  makes  little  difference  what  their  decisions  are. 
What  makes  a  decision  important  is  that  it  is  accepted 
by  the  masses  of  the  people  as  the  embodiment  of  as 
nearly  justice  as  human  wisdom  can  secure;  at  least, 
freedom  from  bias.  The  masses  are  pretty  ready  to 
condone  error.  In  fact  they  are  entirely  too  free  to 
condone  ignorance  and  stupidity  and  error  for  their 
own  good.  But  why  is  it  that  the  courts  which  like 
the  legislatures  and  the  masses  of  our  business  men 
are  at  least  not  wholly  evil  and  certainly  full  of  much 
that  is  good  and  noble  and  of  good  report  are  under 
this  general  ban?  The  reason  is  that  the  moral  un- 
derpinning of  society  has  disappeared.  The  ermine 
of  the  judge  is  tarred  with  the  same  stick  as  that 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     117 

which  blackens  the  character  of  our  legislatures,  and 
which  assumes  that  every  form  of  big  business  is  in- 
extricably linked  with  every  form  of  crime.  The 
public  mind  is  apparently  unable  to  think  well  of  any 
of  our  social  institutions.  It  finds  it  so  much  easier 
to  believe  the  worst  that  can  be  said  that  it  hardly 
recognizes  the  existence  of  anything  that  is  not  evil. 
The  disastrous  effects  of  such  a  state  of  the  public 
mind  —  a  thoroughly  psychopathic  condition  —  can 
hardly  be  estimated.  They  reach  every  relation  of 
human  life  and  they  darken  the  national  future  and 
stain  the  national  faith.  They  impeach  the  best  as- 
pirations of  mankind  and  they  make  the  marvelous 
additions  to  knowledge  and  mechanical  resources  of 
civilization  but  symbols  of  more  skilful  rascality  and 
deeper  shame.  The  reason  for  this  is  the  same  which 
we  have  already  indicated.  By  a  perfectly  natural 
evolution  the  elimination  of  the  moral  sense  from  the 
subject  of  taxation  has  also  eliminated  it  from  our 
social  institutions  and  the  best  efforts  of  the  good  and 
noble  men  who  are  striving  for  the  upbuilding  of  so- 
ciety are  nullified  and  hampered  not  merely  by  the 
natural  antagonisms  of  those  who  are  affected  by 
these  efforts,  but  even  more  by  the  moral  indifference 
of  those  who  should  be  the  allies  of  such  labors.  Re- 
form efforts  and  social  uplifting,  general  as  they  are 
and  often  more  or  less  successful,  are  themselves  based 
upon  the  general  doctrine  that  nobody  is  to  be  trusted 
and  that  if  we  ever  achieve  goodness  it  will  be  because 
we  have  bound  our  citizenship  hand  and  foot  by  laws 
which  rigorously  limit  their  sphere  of  operations  and 


ii8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

which  set  every  public  official  spying  upon  every  other 
public  official  and  the  general  public  spying  upon  them 
all!  Successful  government  under  these  circum- 
stances could  it  be  secured  would  be  a  miracle.  But 
successful  government  cannot  be  secured  by  these 
means  because  men  are  superior  to  machinery  and 
what  men  invent  men  can  thwart. 

The  one  instrument  which  can  affect  this  state  of 
affairs  is  the  instrument  which  by  constitution,  inher- 
itance, and  natural  action  is  fitted  to  alter  the  moral 
views  of  men.  That  instrument  is  religion  and  the 
agency  by  which  it  is  to  be  brought  to  the  public  mind 
is  the  church.  So  true  is  this  that  latterly  even  medi- 
cine, the  most  empirical  of  sciences,  has  come  to  rec- 
ognize the  therapeutic  value  of  prayer  and  spiritual 
exercises.  Well,  if  the  attitude  which  prayer  brings 
to  the  human  mind  and  spirit  can  effect  a  mental  dis- 
ease in  the  individual,  prayerfulness  on  the  part  of 
the  public  mind  certainly  can  affect  the  operations  of 
government.  We  have  no  disposition  to  crowd  a 
creed  down  the  public  throat.  But  certainly  when  all 
men  are  afraid  and  the  hearts  of  the  people  are  turned 
to  water  because  they  lack  confidence,  hope  and  faith, 
it  may  not  be  an  entirely  worthless  suggestion  to  di- 
rect attention  to  the  intimate  relation  thus  established 
between  personal  piety  and  just  and  honest  govern- 
ment. Nothing  need  be  hoped  for  in  the  way  of  a 
permanent  change  in  the  mind  of  the  masses  until 
confidence  is  restored.  You  cannot  have  a  sound 
public  body  and  a  diseased  public  mind.  It  is  the 
public  mind,  the  social  spirit,  which  needs  quickening. 


The  Distrust  of  Social  Institutions     119 

vastly  more  than  we  need  new  laws,  new  institutions 
and  new  forms  of  legal  judicature.  And  this  disease 
is  a  moral  disease.  It  springs  from  the  steady  con- 
templation of  evil  and  evil  effects.  It  is  grounded  in 
ignorance  of  spiritual  processes  and  spiritual  inspira- 
tions. And  it  has  lacked  these  because  Christianity 
as  a  social  and  governmental  force  has  never  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  people  as  a  part  of 
their  necessary  religion.  The  expansion  of  Christian- 
ity in  this  respect  would  bring  almost  instantaneous 
relief,  because  whatever  else  it  brought  it  would  re- 
veal the  inevitable  antagonism  between  the  practises 
which  are  based  on  falsehood  and  those  which  live  by 
and  through  the  truth. 

We  must  bring  the  common  mind  back  to  the 
truth,  as  old  as  the  Christian  religion  itself,  that  men 
make  institutions  and  not  institutions  men.  We  must 
extend  the  curriculum  of  public  preaching  in  the 
churches  till  there  is  no  exemption  left.  We  must  let 
nothing  alone  in  this  wide  world  that  lacks  the  essence 
and  spirit  of  the  Christian  gospel.  We  must  drive  the 
truth  home  till  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the 
land  knows  the  difference  between  genuine  Christian- 
ity and  its  innumerable  counterfeits.  Two  modes  are 
open  to  us  in  this  program.  One  is  by  the  positive 
interpretation  and  application  of  the  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion,  not  merely  to  private  manners  and 
behavior,  but  to  money,  to  taxes,  to  business,  to  gov- 
ernment and  to  law.  The  other  is  by  the  ruthless 
cleansing  of  the  temple  of  the  corrupt  simulators  of 
religion  who  hold  down  the  truth  in  unrighteousness. 


120    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Both  plans  mean  war.  Both  involve  the  crusading 
spirit.  Both  demand  the  herculean  qualities  of  in- 
finite study,  pains  and  suffering.  We  must  create  a 
new  roster  of  saints  who  are  linked  with  the  present 
day  aspiration,  and  who  can  speak  in  the  dialect  of 
present  day  longing.  We  must  learn  to  be  powerful 
in  appeal  and  just  in  statement.  Above  all,  we  must 
hew  to  that  fine  line  of  impartiality  which  will  win 
the  assent  of  men,  because  it  knows  neither  party  nor 
creed  nor  clan  nor  condition,  but  only  the  truth. 
Such  a  Christianity  will  alter  the  public  mind  which 
will  in  turn  alter  the  processes  through  which  that 
public  mind  expresses  itself.  It  will  prove  all  things 
but  it  will  also  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.  It  will 
lay  the  ax  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  but  it  will  exercise 
a  conservation  of  humanity  which  will  not  needlessly 
hamper  or  humiliate.  But  it  must  be  true  and  it  must 
have  confidence.  It  must  expel  the  universal  distrust 
by  the  positive  qualities  of  service  and  sacrifice  and 
establish  a  new  and  more  rational  age  of  faith. 


CHAPTER  V 
QUACKS  ABOUNDING 


In  every  profession  to  sum  it  all  up,  the  root  of  the  evil  is  this, 
that  we  believe  that  mere  dexterity  and  cunning  are  incomparably 
superior  to  knowledge  and  that  cleverness  is  infinitely  more 
valuable  than  sound  learning.  Those  who  follow  professions  be- 
lieve this,  and  the  lay  public  that  employs  the  professions  is 
not  dismayed  by  this  attitude  of  the  professional  class;  and  so 
things  tend  to  that  equality  of  charlatanry  to  which  democracy 
instinctively  tends.  Democracy  does  not  respect  efficiency,  but 
it  will  soon  have  no  opportunity  to  respect  it ;  for  efficiency 
is  being  destroyed  and  before  long  will  have  disappeared  al- 
together. 

Faguet,  "  The  Cult  of  Incompetence." 

We  are  witnessing  today  beyond  question,  the  decay  —  perhaps 
not  permanent,  but  at  any  rate  the  decay  —  of  republican  institu- 
tions.   No  man  in  his  right  mind  can  deny  it. 

Franklin  H.  Giddings. 


CHAPTER  V 

QUACKS   ABOUNDING 


SCIENTIFIC  as  the  age  loves  to  think  itself,  it  is 
actually  an  age  of  triumphant  quackery.  In- 
deed, not  a  few  of  the  scientists  themselves  have  un- 
consciously perhaps,  but  none  the  less  really,  yielded 
to  the  insistent  demand  for  reforms  of  one  kind  and 
another  that  they  have  hastened  to  produce  remedies 
for  the  long  standing  ills  of  society.  As  a  result  it 
is  possible  nowadays  to  cite  names  of  first  rate  repute 
for  almost  every  kind  of  folly,  whether  it  has  to  do 
with  government,  law,  medicine,  business  or  religion. 
The  one  thing  that  strikes  the  impartial  observer 
looking  over  the  entire  field  is  that  there  is  everywhere 
a  ruthless  scrambling  by  special  means  to  deal  with 
fundamental  human  troubles.  The  one  great  discov- 
ery of  the  nineteenth  century  notwithstanding  it  has 
produced  such  wonderful  results  was  that  nothing 
happens  by  accident  but  that  underneath  all  the  com- 
plex phenomena  of  life  there  are  fixed  laws  and  that 
the  business  of  the  human  mind  is  to  find  those  laws 
and  obey  them,  but  nevertheless  the  short  cut  method 
to  social  and  political  reformation  is  the  prevailing 
method.     The  list  of  grotesque  propositions  for  re- 

123 


124    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

making  society  and  altering  human  habits  are  legion 
and  they  seem  to  be  increasing.  Perhaps  it  is  not 
fair  to  call  all  this  activity  quackery.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  it  certainly  is  inspired  by  genuine  zeal  to 
help  mankind.  But  the  wreckage  which  this  process 
reveals  is  impressive  and  not  encouraging  as  an  index 
of  the  growth  of  rational  thought  and  well  directed 
effort.  No  scheme  is  too  absurd  to  find  advocates. 
No  proposition  is  too  foolish  or  too  expensive  or  too 
obviously  against  all  the  previous  experience  or  judg- 
ment of  enlightened  men  to  be  advocated  with  zeal 
and  seriousness.  And  the  public  mind  receives  these 
proposals  in  about  the  same  spirit  in  which  they  are 
presented.  Legislatures  fairly  tumble  over  themselves 
to  pass  impossible  legislation.  Commissions  of  states 
and  the  national  government  fill  the  public  thought 
with  ideas  and  hopes  which  cannot  possibly  end  in 
anything  but  disappointment  and  disaster.  Religious 
conventions,  medical  associations  and  legal  assemblies 
all  add  to  the  din  until  the  average  man  has  arrived 
at  a  mental  state  which  makes  him  well  nigh  incapable 
of  judging  anything  by  the  ordinary  standards  of 
sound  reasoning.  All  the  while  the  one  need  of  the 
public  is  sound  instruction  and  careful  leadership 
but  these  are  the  things  which  we  conspicuously 
lack. 

This  is  the  ideal  stamping  ground  for  the  quack 
of  every  description.  In  an  age  when  medical  science 
is  peculiarly  active  on  the  side  of  investigation  and 
experimentation,  that  undoubted  efficiency  is  being  in 
large  measure  discredited  because  so  many  well  known 


Quacks  Abounding  125 

if  not  eminent  names  are  connected  with  schemes  or 
programs  which  nulHfy  in  toto  the  simplest  maxims 
of  scientific  investigation.  The  medical  quack  faces 
us  at  every  street  corner.  His  advertisements  fill  the 
newspapers.  His  testimonials  are  legion  and  his 
financial  returns  are  such  as  to  encourage  the  increase 
of  the  species  to  such  an  extent  that  there  seems  to 
be  no  end  in  sight.  The  moment  a  new  drug  is  dis- 
covered, the  very  instant  some  fresh  experiment 
reveals  possibilities,  it  becomes  the  subject  of  commer- 
cial exploitation  and  the  miraculous  serums  and  injec- 
tions and  cure-alls  which  are  offered  to  the  afiiicted 
people  of  the  nation  make  the  cure  producing  legends 
of  the  medieval  age  look  like  amateurish  efforts  in  the 
same  line.  But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  these 
things  are  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  ignorant 
and  unlearned.  Nothing  much  more  astounding  can 
be  fished  out  of  the  purlieus  of  dark  lantern  medical 
quackery  than  the  recent  exploitation  of  a  miraculous 
turtle  serum  for  the  cure  of  tuberculosis.  But  this 
was  not  done  in  a  corner  by  persons  without  name 
and  reputation.  Nay,  it  came  to  us  with  the  sanction 
of  high  reputation  from  the  intellectual  capital  of  the 
world.  But  it  was  quackery  pure  and  simple.  The 
lucky  box  seller  of  Boston  who  was  captured  a  few 
years  ago  in  Boston  with  many  sacks  of  mail  convey- 
ing thousands  of  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  a  miracle 
performing  alleged  lucky  box,  found  to  be  manufac- 
tured in  a  saw  mill  down  in  Maine,  was  not  essen- 
tially different  in  character  from  the  bringer  of 
tidings  of  certain  cure  for  the  dreaded  white  plague. 


126    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

And  this  is  an  age  conspicuous  for  its  scientific  spirit 
and  attainments! 

We  are  hardly  better  off  when  we  examine  the 
propositions  for  the  readjustment  of  our  colossal 
business  problems.  Let  us  concede  that  we  have 
learned  much  in  recent  years  about  business.  Let  us 
admit  that  we  have  found  sins  where  none  existed 
before.  Let  us  acknowledge  that  we  have  found 
grave  and  fearful  methods  and  conditions  prevailing 
which  call  for  severe  and  drastic  methods  of  reform. 
But  the  very  gravity  of  the  disease  calls  for  profound 
seriousness  and  especially  for  a  deep  and  alert  moral 
sense  in  dealing  with  them.  The  very  complicated 
character  of  the  problem  would  seem  to  make  men 
rationally  inclined,  see  to  it  that  we  do  not  kill  the 
patient  in  the  endeavor  to  cure  him.  The  present 
writer  certainly  has  no  particular  sympathy  with  the 
big  business  or  the  little  business  found  to  be  engaged 
in  the  spoliation  of  his  fellow  human  beings  engaged 
in  the  labor  of  making  a  living.  But  that  fact  does 
not  incite  anybody  capable  of  understanding  the  mul- 
tiplication table  to  a  reckless  and  ruthless  increase  in 
taxation  or  interference  with  private  matters  which 
can  only  end  in  national  bankruptcy  or  governmental 
tyranny.  The  preservation  of  human  liberty  is  vastly 
the  greatest  of  all  the  problems  which  are  now  before 
us.  Few  persons  seem  to  be  aware  of  the  fact  that 
where  the  collective  programs  are  most  effective  pri- 
vate initiative  and  liberty  are  also  the  least.  They 
do  not  seem  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  under  these 
very  programs  class  conditions  tend  to  become  fixed 


Quacks  Abounding  127 

and  the  fluid  alteration  of  social  classes  tends  to  cease. 
It  happens  to  be  one  of  the  fixed  laws  of  this  world 
that  you  cannot  have  your  cake  and  eat  it  too.  Cer- 
tainly if  there  is  one  fact  more  impressive  in  this  world 
than  any  other  it  is  this:  that  men  unhampered  have 
produced  the  most  capable  and  effective  specimens  of 
the  race.  This  is  not  to  say  that  every  man  is  to  be 
permitted  without  any  sort  of  regulation  or  control 
to  run  amuck  in  the  world,  performing  only  his  own 
sweet  will.  It  is  not  saying  that  there  is  anybody  in 
this  world  who  will  not  bear  the  careful  scrutiny  of 
his  fellow  men  and  all  the  aids  that  can  be  given  to 
help  him  to  be  just  and  fair  in  his  dealings.  It  is, 
however,  saying  that  a  civilization  which  is  grounded 
in  the  idea  that  nobody  is  to  be  permitted  to  initiate 
anything  until  the  mob  has  had  time  to  assimilate  it,  is 
to  gag  the  human  mind  and  to  stop  the  progress  of 
the  race.  That  seems  to  be  the  policy  at  the  present 
moment.  The  business  reform  quack,  whatever  he 
calls  himself,  is  not  so  much  to  be  feared  because  of 
the  particular  doctrine  which  he  advocates,  since 
most  of  these  things  come  to  their  natural  end  in  time 
as  they  are  surely  found  impossible,  but  because  they 
are  based  upon  an  idea  which  is  inherently  destructive 
of  the  intellectual  and  social  future  of  the  race. 
There  is  no  creature  so  sensitive  to  interference  as  he 
who  has  the  capacity,  imagination  and  skill  to  organize 
the  large  enterprises  by  which  human  life  has  been 
revolutionized  and  humanity  made  able  to  see  itself 
with  clearness  and  understand  the  processes  by  which 
it  has  been  evolved  to  its  present  state.     Destroy  that 


128    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

and  your  "  collective  mind  "  soon  becomes  vacant  be- 
cause the  productive  agents  by  which  you  have  the 
collective  mind  have  been  destroyed  or  crippled. 

The  situation  is  even  worse  when  we  turn  to  the 
sociological  mania  which  is  sweeping  over  the  land. 
It  would  take  a  much  larger  volume  than  this  to  pre- 
sent in  review  the  wholesale  effort  to  regenerate  so- 
ciety by  legislation  which  is  now  going  on  throughout 
the  United  States.  From  the  regulation  of  the  length 
of  hatpins  to  the  standardizing  of  babies  the  whole 
field  is  covered.  There  is  evidence  that  the  most  en- 
lightened sociologists  are  themselves  becoming  alarmed 
at  the  turn  of  events  which  cannot  but  eventuate  in  a 
discrediting  of  a  very  important  and  useful  field  of 
human  effort  and  research.  Here  again  the  evils  are 
great.  They  are  more  than  great.  They  cry  to 
Heaven  for  relief  and  reformation.  But  this  should 
be  the  very  reason  why  the  deep  and  poignant  ills  of 
mankind  should  not  be  confused  with  trivial  and  fool- 
ish matters.  To  put  a  matter  of  the  length  of  bed 
sheets  into  a  state  constitution  would  be  merely  a  piece 
of  rural  foolishness  if  it  did  not  connote  a  state  of 
mind  which  is  far  more  dangerous  than  any  particular 
legislation  which  it  can  possibly  bring  forth.  It 
shows  a  lack  of  conception  of  fundamental  law  which 
in  personal  affairs  would  spell  ruin  and  destruction. 
Fiddling  when  Rome  is  burning  is  a  highminded 
performance  by  the  side  of  sticking  into  a  state  con- 
stitution trivial  foolishness  which  blurs  the  idea  of 
fundamental  law.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  natural 
next  step  is  already  at  hand  in  the  proposals  for  un- 


Quacks  Abounding  129 

written  constitutions  and  the  destruction  of  all  funda- 
mental lavv^.  In  a  similar  manner  the  ideas  brought 
forth  for  the  regulation  of  marriage,  for  the  care  of 
offspring,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  family,  notably 
mothers  with  dependent  children  and  the  like,  admit- 
ting every  one  of  them  to  spring  from  a  benevolent 
impulse,  carry  with  them  seeds  of  social  decay  which 
are  infinitely  more  to  be  feared  than  at  least  very 
many  of  the  ills  under  which  we  are  groaning. 

The  pathetic  result  of  all  this  is  precisely  that  which 
we  have  already  seen  in  medicine.  The  medical 
quack  often  with  high  degrees  and  reputable  name 
brings  into  disrepute  the  thoroughly  sound  and  rep- 
utable advances  of  medical  science.  The  sociological 
quack  in  exactly  the  same  manner  is  discrediting  the 
work  of  social  amelioration  and  bringing  all  such 
effort  in  to  disrepute  because  destroying  all  perspec- 
tive. The  scrap  heap  of  worthless  and  absurd  legis- 
lation, both  that  attempted  and  that  enacted,  is  moun- 
tain high.  Fortunately  we  have  still  with  us  the 
sound  processes  of  law  and  the  courts.  It  is  still 
possible  under  our  jurisprudence  to  safeguard  the  in- 
dividual and  prevent  the  utter  destruction  of  liberty. 
But  such  is  the  sociological  rage,  and  such  the  patho- 
logical state  of  the  public  mind  that  this  last  restraint 
against  what  is  essentially  mob  law  is  likewise  in  the 
way  of  being  so  altered  that  it  will  mean  nothing 
presently  if  the  public  mind  is  not  instructed  and 
wisely  directed.  And  the  political  quack  is  not  want- 
ing to  make  the  fullest  use  of  the  public  frenzy  for  his 
own  uses.     It  would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  the  great- 


130    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

est  demagogue  of  to-day  is  he  who  inveighs  most 
loudly  against  our  social  ills.  It  would  be  fair  to  say 
that  the  clear  headed  citizen  and  public  leader  who  re- 
fuses to  follow  the  will-o'-the-wisps  of  "social  jus- 
tice "  so-called  and  follow  reason  instead  of  passion 
gets  scant  hearing.  It  is  this  want  of  ability  to  prove 
all  things  and  hold  fast  only  what  is  good  which  is 
our  real  social  danger.  Every  ill  can  be  borne  and 
survived  but  the  loss  of  rationality.  And  this  loss 
of  the  power  of  self  restraint  and  ability  to  hold  in 
solution  the  questions  at  issue  until  something  funda- 
mental has  been  reached,  constitutes  vastly  the  greatest 
social  problem  of  this  generation.  Not  because  the 
ills  are  not  great.  Not  because  the  need  for  remedy 
is  not  urgent !  Not  because  the  impulse  to  find  a  way 
out  is  not  creditable  and  praiseworthy!  But  because 
the  very  remedy  we  seek,  the  very  belief  for  the  need 
of  which  we  suffer  and  the  very  "  social  justice"  by 
which  we  are  to  advance,  is  thus  automatically  placed 
beyond  the  range  of  possibilities.  There  is  no  social 
justice  without  reason.  There  is  no  social  remedy 
not  grounded  in  character.  There  is  no  social  hope 
that  culminates  in  a  flaming  outburst  of  social  pas- 
sion. All  such  can  eventuate  in  either  one  of  two 
things  —  tyranny  or  anarchy. 


II 

There  remain  to  be  examined  in  this  respect  the 
sphere  of  education  and  religion.  It  was  a  dean  of 
Harvard  College  who  wrote  some  years  ago  the  whim- 


Quacks  Abounding  131 

sical  sentence  in  the  preface  of  a  book  on  school,  col- 
lege and  character,  when  somebody  wanted  to  know 
who  he  was  and  why  the  review  in  which  his  essay 
was  printed,  published  such  nonsense  as  he  was  writ- 
ing, that  "  whoever  wrote  nonsense  on  the  subject  of 
education  wrote  in  good  company."  But  that  is 
putting  it  rather  mildly.  Educational  humbug  is  al- 
most as  rampantly  trampling  over  the  country  as 
medical  or  sociological  humbug.  It  is  not  merely 
nonsense  which  is  invading  every  form  of  public  and 
private  education.  It  is  the  nullification  of  the  sim- 
plest principles  of  the  htmian  mind,  which  constitutes 
the  educational  problem.  After  years  of  educational 
glory,  the  Boston  School  Committee  has  just  issued, 
while  this  chapter  is  writing,  a  remarkable  announce- 
ment that  the  elementary  grades  are  to  give  more  at- 
tention to  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic!  The 
document  goes  on  to  state  that  the  elementary  educa- 
tion is  going  to  have  some  relation  to  the  ordinary 
processes  which  most  of  the  pupils  have  to  face  in 
their  later  life!  Now  if  this  is  what  we  have  reached 
after  all  these  years  in  the  Athens  of  America,  we 
may  well  wonder  where  the  rest  of  the  country  stands. 
But  this  committee  has  at  least  discovered  that  on  the 
point  of  preparing  the  children  for  their  ordinary  du- 
ties in  life  the  public  school  system  has  made  some 
very  lamentable  failures.  And  perhaps  it  may  finally 
prove  that  this  document  may  be  evidence  of  a  very 
remarkable  kind  of  public  courage.  It  is  very  much 
the  fashion  to  assail  public  education  and  there  is 
much  to  assail.     It  is  observable,  however,  that  most 


132    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  those  who  make  the  assault  have  nothing  very 
positive  or  intelligible  to  ofifer  as  a  substitute  for  what 
we  are  receiving.  Certainly  nothing  that  indicates 
very  profound  knowledge  of  the  problem  or  of  the 
agencies  by  which  reform  is  to  be  secured.  For  be 
it  remembered  education  involves  many  things  in- 
cluding buildings  and  equipment,  but  most  of  all 
teachers!  And  the  training  of  the  teacher  and  the 
organization  of  the  teaching  force  psychologically  and 
practically  are  not  exactly  the  simplest  matters  in  the 
world.  Teachers  have  an  unfortunate  habit  of  think- 
ing they  know  what  they  want  to  do.  And  the  more 
effective  they  are,  or  the  more  precisely  trained,  the 
more  difficult  it  is  to  treat  them  as  a  mass  and  handle 
them  by  executive  orders  from  the  superintendent's 
office,  especially  if  the  superintendent  aforesaid  be 
an  intellectual  inferior  of  his  subordinates,  a  not  un- 
common thing,  or  a  political  hireling  held  in  position 
by  powers  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  education 
per  se,  an  equally  common  spectacle.  Almost  any- 
body with  a  reasonably  good  vocabulary  can  success- 
fully assail  certain  results  of  our  public  education. 
It  certainly  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  writer 
to  join  that  happy  throng. 

But  after  all  is  said  and  done,  the  fact  remains  that 
educational  quackery  abounds  like  all  the  other 
quackeries,  because  there  have  been  taken  out  of  edu- 
cation certain  qualities  without  which  education  in  any 
rational  sense  is  almost  impossible.  Here,  as  in  gov- 
ernment and  law,  the  rage  is  to  reform  the  system, 
without  fundamentally  inquiring  into  the  ideas  and 


Quacks  Abounding  133 

personal  qualities  of  the  persons  who  are  to  do  the 
work.  On  every  side  we  are  clamoring  for  German 
thoroughness  and  German  efficiency  and  German  ef- 
fectiveness. Well  and  good.  Are  the  advocates  of 
these  things  willing  to  accept  German  supervision,  Grer- 
man  autocracy,  German  industry  and  German  tyranny? 
That  is  the  real  question.  Pure  democracy  is  a  beau- 
tiful and  joyous  vision.  But  pure  democracy  does 
not  contemplate  a  rigid  rule  of  powerful  individuals 
inflexibly  capable  and  inflexibly  determined  that  the 
recipients  of  their  favor  shall  above  all  things  work! 
It  would  be  amusing  were  it  not  so  very  nearly 
tragic  to  observe  the  frantic  efforts  of  our  educational 
officers  to  secure  results  which  shall  answer  the  social 
rage  for  results.  Not  content  with  all  kinds  of  tin- 
kering in  the  school  itself,  it  includes  propositions 
which  contemplate  the  regulation  and  organization  of 
the  household,  with  school  credits  for  baths,  sweeping 
of  rooms,  washing  of  teeth,  blacking  of  stoves,  and  a 
vast  variety  of  things  which  we  once  happily  supposed 
constituted  the  functions  of  the  home.  Almost  every- 
thing seems  to  be  proposed  except  the  theory  that 
study  is  work  to  be  performed,  like  other  work,  with 
the  concomitant  qualities  of  industry,  patience,  fidel- 
ity to  duty,  subordination  to  proper  authority,  respect 
for  elders  and  superiors  and  the  like.  The  strike  of 
school  children  has  become  one  of  our  prevailing 
forms  of  social  hysteria.  And  against  the  process  of 
raising  standards  by  the  imposition  of  conditions 
which  presuppose  hard  work,  let  it  be  noted  that  one 
of  the  leading  medical  schools  of  the  country  which 


134    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

a  few  years  ago  sought  to  raise  the  standard  of  the 
medical  profession  by  requiring  college  degrees  of  its 
students,  has  been  compelled  to  abandon  that  standard 
because  it  was  proved  to  be  impossible  of  execution. 
What  the  Harvard  IMedical  School  thus  found  could 
not  be  done  in  the  matter  of  intending  doctors  is 
symptomatic  of  the  disease  of  the  entire  educational 
system.  The  insistence  on  all  sides  is  on  everything 
except  the  moral  qualities  by  which  the  other  results 
alone  are  possible.  The  defeat  of  one  of  the  strong- 
est educational  institutions  in  the  land  in  this  matter 
is  fairly  indicative,  not  merely  of  what  takes  place  in 
less  favored  institutions,  but  of  the  state  of  the  public 
mind  on  the  subject  generally.  And  it  is  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  quack,  who  comes  forward  with  the 
general  discrediting  not  merely  of  the  prevailing  edu- 
cation, but  finally  of  all  education  beyond  the  mere 
rudiments.  But  even  these  rudiment^,  at  least  in 
Boston,  it  appears,  have  been  neglected  and  are  now 
to  be  taken  up  with  seriousness! 

There  is  no  indictment  of  our  education,  public  and 
private,  lower  or  higher,  which  will  lie  so  absolutely 
proved  as  that  which  attacks  it  on  the  side  of  its  moral 
capacity.  This  is  not  on  the  side  of  what  are  com- 
monly called  "  morals  "  but  on  the  side  of  the  inculca- 
tion of  thorough  training  and  discipline  of  the  powers 
by  which  alone  men  become  useful,  capable  and  satis- 
factory members  of  society,  namely,  concentrated 
industry,  obedience,  respect  for  law  and  properly 
constituted  authority  and  the  expectation  of  success, 
through  these  qualities  and  these  only.     Here  also  the 


Quacks  Abounding  135 

rage  for  panaceas  has  overturned  the  ability  to  think 
soundly,  and  to  labor  with  patience  and  with  stolid 
indifference  to  the  hallelujahs  of  the  educational  sal- 
vation army!  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  we 
have  the  manifestations  in  the  maturer  portion  of  the 
nation  when  we  contemplate  the  utter  absence  of  the 
agencies  for  moral  discipline  in  the  formative  periods 
of  life.  Children  who  are  not  taught  to  obey  proper 
authority  are  not  likely  to  have  much  respect,  as  citi- 
zens, for  courts  and  laws.  Children  to  whom  are 
supplied  every  possible  adjimct  of  their  earlier  edu- 
cation without  effort  or  expense  on  their  part,  are 
not  likely  to  expect  to  live  by  their  own  efforts,  but 
continue  to  look  to  the  public  authorities  not  merely 
for  work,  but  for  support.  What  kind  of  a  society 
can  be  reared  upon  a  foundation  which  automatically 
denudes  the  youth  of  the  land  of  ideas  of  personal 
responsibility  and  duty?  And  which  adds  to  this 
defect  miscellaneous  notions  about  hard  work,  faith- 
fulness and  good  manners!  Is  it  much  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  we  have  to  have  innumerable  societies 
to  do  what  should  be  presupposed  as  accomplished  at 
the  emergence  from  school,  namely  to  reform  elemen- 
tary moral  conceptions,  teach  fundamental  duties  and 
bring  about  friendly  relations  between  fathers  and 
sons? 

The  very  existence  of  these  agencies  outside  of  the 
school  and  the  home  divide  the  interest  and  authority 
and  make  the  subjects  of  such  confusion  of  control 
the  natural  subjects  of  exploitation  by  the  agitator  and 
the  demagogue.     But  they  are  making  them  also  nat- 


136    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ural  subjects  of  exploitation  by  the  predatory  ele- 
ments of  society,  which  do  not  wish  to  deal  with 
intelligent  and  self  controlled  labor,  and  intelligent 
and  self  controlled  masses,  who  by  their  very  reason- 
able demands  are  able  to  bring  about  permanent  and 
beneficent  reform.  If  there  was  ever  a  program  en- 
tered upon  by  a  nation  with  consecration  and  zeal, 
the  educational  program  of  the  American  people  was 
such  an  undertaking.  But  where  has  it  brought  us? 
Into  a  wild  rage  for  alteration  without  improvement, 
for  sociological  advances  defiant  of  natural  laws  and 
widespread  and  growing  juvenile  delinquency  and  no 
diminution,  perceptible,  of  what  President  Eliot  called 
the  barbarian  vices  of  drunkenness,  gambling  and 
licentiousness.  It  would  not  be  just  to  say  that  the 
rage  for  educational  improvement  has  brought  all  this 
about.  It  would  be  just  to  say  that  the  educational 
rage  for  fresh  devices,  which  do  not  touch  the  root 
of  the  problem  and  the  educational  quackery,  which 
obscures  the  moral  elements  of  the  questions  to  be 
considered  and  keeps  on  adding  fringes,  while  the 
garment  is  dropping  to  pieces,  has  a  large  share  of 
the  responsibility  for  the  present  situation.  The 
simultaneous  announcement  of  failure  from  the  edu- 
cational bottom  and  the  educational  top  in  Boston 
fairly  illustrates  the  problem.  With  all  the  other 
quacks  the  educational  quack  has  the  floor. 


Quacks  Abounding  137 

III 

The  consideration  of  religious  quackery  presents 
many  difficulties  which  are  not  present  in  the  discus- 
sion of  quacks  in  other  fields  of  human  endeavor. 
Religion  is  itself  a  subject  of  mystery.  -It  therefore 
lends  itself  readily  to  more  mystification  than  that 
which  is  inherent  in  the  subject  itself.  Moreover  the 
expansion  of  religion  in  recent  times  has  been  so 
great  that  the  limits  of  the  subject  are  not  so  apparent 
as  they  once  were.  This  has  affected  the  church,  as 
well  as  religion,  in  a  manner  which  will  be  the  subject 
of  a  subsequent  chapter.  But  for  the  immediate  ques- 
tion in  hand,  it  may  be  asserted  that  if  education,  law, 
social  service  and  the  like  are  all  infested  with  nos- 
trums of  one  kind  and  another,  which  have  well  nigh 
drowned  out  the  sober  and  sound  discussion  of  these 
matters,  it  is  hardly  less  true  concerning  the  most  vital 
of  the  interests  of  humanity,  namely  religion  itself. 
Let  us  admit  that  we  know  more  about  man  than  we 
ever  knew  before.  Let  us  admit  that  religion  has  a 
larger  sphere  of  operations  than  it  ever  had.  Let  us 
admit  that  the  subject  of  the  relations  of  humanity 
with  God  have  received  much  enlightenment  and 
illumination  at  the  hands  of  critics,  archaeologists,  in- 
vestigators and  psychologists.  It  still  remains  that 
religion  has  a  history  and  that  historically  some  things 
have  been  established  as  firmly  as  the  human  reason 
itself.  We  need  not  quarrel  with  fresh  psychological 
hypotheses,  provided  we  keep  on  living  rationally, 
while  discussing  them.     We  need  not  become  hyster- 


138    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ical  over  the  discovery  that  some  cherished  theory  has 
been  found  based  on  myth  or  imagination,  provided 
we  remember  that  the  imagination  of  man  has  always 
been  active,  and  very  likely  will  continue  to  be  active 
as  long  as  man  remains  on  the  earth.  Nor  need  we 
even  become  over-excited  about  the  historical  falsity 
of  something  we  have  hitherto  supposed  to  be  his- 
torically true,  if  we  keep  steadily  in  mind  that  history 
as  a  science  is  a  comparatively  recent  discovery  itself. 
No  one  can  have  the  slightest  desire  to  stop  any  sort 
of  intellectual  activity  in  the  sphere  of  religious  in- 
vestigation, always  provided  we  keep  before  us  the 
main  propositions  of  sound  living,  namely  that  human 
relations  and  human  behavior  are  themselves  the  re- 
sults of  the  experience  of  mankind,  with  itself,  over 
many  centuries  and  in  the  long  run  represent  the 
workable  doctrines  of  that  experience. 

But  this  is  not  the  prevailing  attitude  of  our  gen- 
-eration.  The  prevailing  attitude  is  that  all  things 
have  become  new.  Hence  the  door  has  been  opened 
wide  for  every  species  of  nonsense  and  buffoonery  and 
the  sincerely  religious  man,  looking  over  the  field,  is 
harassed  on  every  side  with  frantic  and  insistent  ap- 
peals to  meet  the  impending  crisis  in  the  religious  life 
of  the  world!  If  he  be  at  all  a  person  of  sensitive- 
ness he  is  immediately  plunged  into  an  atmosphere  of 
dubiety  from  which  once  in  he  finds  it  very  hard  to 
emerge.*     Sound  doctrine  disappears  and  in  fact  all 

iThe  most  remarkable  case  in  illustration  that  has  come  to 
my  knowledge  is  that  of  the  Provost  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  depressed  by  the  fact  that  three  suicides  had 


Quacks  Abounding  139 

thoroughgoing  rehgious  teaching  has  substantially 
disappeared  from  the  vast  body  of  our  churches.  On 
the  one  hand  we  are  faced  with  the  immovable,  un- 
yielding mass  of  dogmaticians,  who  have  long  since 
passed  out  of  the  region  of  vital  religion  and  keep  on 
uttering  and  proclaiming  the  impossible  dogmas  of 
a  bygone  age.  But  as  a  substitute  for  these  we  have 
the  irresponsible  clamor  of  innumerable  strident 
voices,  which  indicate  the  reign  of  universal  quackery. 
Thus  we  have  every  form  of  delusion,  not  only  with 
adherents  but  with  organization,  from  a  quietism 
which  eschews  everything  that  looks  like  duty  and 
moral  imperative,  to  religion  that  grounds  itself  in 
bodily  ailments  and  their  cure,  the  regulation  of  di- 
gestion, the  expectation  of  the  miraculous  transforma- 
tion of  the  world,  the  unconscious  absorption  of  the 
spirit  of  God,  the  voodoo  incantations  of  the  oriental 
word  juggler,  the  dark  closet  spiritualist  and  the  ab- 
sent treatment  financier.  Indeed  this  is  but  a  meager 
list  of  the  varied  and  grotesque  assortment  of  reli- 
gious appeals  which  are  made  every  week  in  the  news- 
papers of  the  land.  They  are  all  based  upon  the 
general  notion  that  all  things  have  become  new!  To 
be  sure  none  of  these  things  are  new,  but  that  makes 
little  difference  with  the  thousands  who  flock  to  them 
in  public  and  private  for  instruction  or  relief. 

occurred  in  the  student  body  within  two  weeks,  could  think 
of  no  more  effective  expedient  to  arrest  the  "  suicide  wave  "  than 
to  send  for  the  base  ball  evangelist,  the  Rev.  Billy  Sunday,  to 
address  the  students  and  bring  them  back  to  spiritual  things! 
See  in  this  connection  the  editorial  "Religion  with  a  Punch." 
Nation,  Mar.  19,  1914. 


140    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Nor  are  these  thousands  among  the  poor  and  the 
ignorant.  It  might  be  forgiven  the  poor  ignorant 
negro  in  the  Southern  cotton  field  if  he  followed  his 
voodoo  doctor  around  as  a  person  possessing  super- 
natural qualifications  for  communicating  with  the 
Deity.  But  stately  temples  are  reared  to  these  super- 
stitions on  beautiful  boulevards  and  are  visited  by 
thousands  of  persons  with  education,  human  experi- 
ence and  otherwise  thoroughly  responsible  and  sane. 
On  the  roster  of  believers  in  these  things  are  found 
not  merely  names  of  upright  responsible  people,  but 
the  names  of  persons  with  scientific  reputations  and 
eminent  in  education  and  public  service.  You  may 
see  coming  home  from  some  of  these  functions  men 
whose  diplomatic  services  are  reckoned  of  the  highest 
worth  to  the  nations  they  have  represented.  You  may 
see  individuals  to  whom  great  interests  pay  vast  sums 
for  their  knowledge  and  advice,  in  the  profoundest 
legal  questions.  You  may  see  men  who  know  thor- 
oughly what  the  meaning  of  law  is,  in  the  chemical 
laboratory  and  the  dissecting  room.  You  may  see 
men  and  women  who  are  as  nearly  as  human  judgment 
can  decide  such  matters,  absolutely  familiar  with  the 
scientific  processes  by  which  civilization  has  been  ad- 
vanced. And  you  will  see  no  delusion  so  grotesque, 
no  buffoonery  so  absurd  and  contradictory  to  the  nor- 
mal operations  of  the  rational  mind,  but  reckons 
among  its  followers  some  who  correspond  to  the  de- 
scription just  given. 

It  used  to  be  possible  to  say  that  these  phenomena 
could  be  found  in  the  field  of  religion  alone,  but  as 


Quacks  Abounding  141 

previously  stated  this  is  no  longer  the  case.  Trium- 
phant quackery  has  long  since  left  the  area  of  reli- 
gion as  its  particular  and  exclusive  domain.  But  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  contrast  between  sanity 
and  quackery  is  most  glaring  and  vital  in  the  matter 
of  religion,  because  here  it  is  fundamental  and  de- 
cisive of  human  interests  en  bloc.  It  means  vastly 
more  here,  because  it  governs  all  other  operations  and 
especially  those  which  affect  human  conduct.  A  law- 
yer, for  example,  who  has  eliminated  the  possibility 
of  sin  from  the  scheme  of  human  conduct,  may  readily 
find  it  possible  to  use  the  law  for  every  kind  of  what 
other  people  call  rascality,  with  no  consciousness  that 
he  is  doing  anything  wrong.  A  quasi-medical  prac- 
titioner, who  believes  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
disease,  may  readily  contemplate  death  from  neglect 
with  no  particular  emotion  of  regret,  especially  if  the 
deceased  can  be  charged  with  having  been  wanting  in 
the  kind  of  faith  needful  for  restoration  to  health. 
A  religious  absorptionist  who  has  cast  aside  every 
claim  of  rational  behavior  as  between  man  and  man 
may  very  easily  absorb  his  neighbor's  wife  or  his 
neighbor's  money  without  feeling  that  anything  un- 
usual or  especially  disastrous  to  himself  or  the  ab- 
sorbed has  occurred.  And  these  are  not  fanciful 
cases.  They  represent  actual  occurrences.  The 
amazing  prevalence  of  affinities  of  one  kind  and  an- 
other, and  the  ease  with  which  wife-transference  and 
exchange  is  accomplished,  both  legally  and  illegally, 
illustrate  the  point.  The  hideous  feature  of  these 
things  is  that  many  of  them  call  themselves  religion 


142    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

and  are  actually  believed  to  be  religion.  And  as 
the  case  now  stands  there  is  no  effective  means  at 
work  to  counteract  these  influences  or  call  them  by 
their  proper  names.  The  spirit  of  quackery,  called 
also  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  or  the  spirit  of  tolerance, 
forbids  that  we  should  designate  these  assaults  upon 
the  integrity  of  the  social  bond  by  their  proper  names. 
The  church  dares  not  do  it  because  the  church  itself 
is  honeycombed  with  them.  One  need  not  have  a 
single  word  of  reproach  for  any  effort  to  solve  a  bad 
marriage  problem  by  divorce  or  remarriage  or  other- 
wise, that  is  openly,  intelligibly  and  frankly  entered 
into  by  the  contracting  parties.  Indeed  this  would 
tend  to  keep  the  reasoning  spirit  supreme  and  the  re- 
lations clearly  understood.  With  these  we  have  no 
quarrel.  But  with  the  rehgionizing  of  lawlessness  of 
every  kind,  and  the  religious  quack  setting  the  pace 
for  the  rest  of  humanity,  we  seem  to  have  a  large 
problem  on  our  hands.  The  insufferable  stupidity 
and  inertia  of  the  ultra  conservative  is  bad  enough. 
But  with  the  moral  anarchy  of  universal  religious 
quackery,  civilization  itself  is  threatened  unless  there 
shall  be  set  in  motion  a  stern  and  drastic  agency  for 
moral  regeneration  and  recuperation.  And  thus  once 
again,  as  often  before  in  the  history  of  humanity,  we 
have  side  by  side  with  deep  and  pervasive  distrust  of 
every  form  of  social  effort  and  relations,  the  wildest 
heyday  of  quackery,  defying  the  human  reason  at 
every  point  and  crowning  that  defiance  by  parading 
in  its  train  some  of  the  most  famous  names  in  science, 
art,  politics  and  law. 


CHAPTER  VI 
SOCIAL  JUSTICE  ON  THE  CURBSTONE 


What  we  need  now  is  to  rouse  our  profession  to  speak  out. 
We  must  be  heard  in  defense  of  the  good  there  is  in  our  present 
society  and  in  pointing  out  the  social  injury  which  a  retrograde 
step  may  involve.  But  we  also  must  put  ourselves  more  in 
touch  with  the  present  thinking  of  the  people  who  are  being  led 
in  foolish  paths.  We  must  study  sociological  jurisprudence. 
We  must  be  able  to  understand  the  attitude  of  the  sociological 
reformer.  We  must  show  our  sympathy  with  every  sincere  effort 
to  better  things.  .  .  .  The  valuable  lessons  of  the  past  will  be 
given  proper  weight  and  real  and  enduring  social  progress  will  be 
attained.  We  shall  avoid,  then,  radical  and  impractical  changes 
in  law  and  government  by  which  we  might  easily  lose  what  we 
have  gained  in  the  struggle  of  mankind  for  better  things. 

W.  H.  Taft,  before  the  American 
Association  of  Law  Schools. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOCIAL  JUSTICE  ON   THE  CURBSTONE 
I 

REFERENCE  has  already  been  made  to  the  al- 
most universal  distrust  of  the  courts  of  justice. 
The  subject,  however,  deserves  somewhat  more  ex- 
tensive discussion  because  the  social  rage  is  exploiting 
itself  more  especially  under  the  striking  demand  for 
social  justice.  This  term  in  itself  is  interesting,  be- 
cause in  a  large  degree  it  is  one  of  those  elusive 
expressions  which  defies  definition  though  it  may  be 
admitted  that  it  fairly  connotes  a  very  real  demand 
in  the  public  mind.  Just  what  does  social  justice 
mean?  Justice  itself  is  a  moral  quality  and  its  ad- 
ministration through  the  agencies  of  courts  and  laws 
and  other  instruments  of  public  action  is  almost  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  the  moral  qualities  of  the  indi- 
viduals who  manage  and  direct  these  agencies.  Then 
again  justice  is  usually  discovered  and  administered 
in  causes  between  man  and  man  and  usually  in  the 
question  of  the  disposition  of  property.  It  is  based 
upon  rights  and  duties.  There  is  hardly  a  case  where 
justice  is  sought  where  the  question  does  not  turn 
upon  the  duty  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  parties  to  the 
controversy  and  in  the  light  of  the  failure  to  perform 

145 


146    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

this  duty  the  right  or  the  violation  thereof  of  the 
other  party  to  the  controversy  is  proved.  Thus  what 
we  call  justice  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  very 
elaborate  administration  of  rights  and  duties,  what 
the  rights  are  and  what  the  duties  are  gradually  be- 
coming settled  through  the  careful  and  judicial 
examination  of  persons  wholly  disinterested,  called 
judges.  That  is  all  justice  is  and  it  never  can  be 
anything  else.  Nobody  ever  seeks  "  social  justice." 
What  everybody  wants  is  the  possibility  of  securing 
individual  justice  when  the  occasion  for  it  arises.  If 
nobody  ever  felt  his  personal  rights  invaded  there 
would  be  no  use  for  courts  or  lawyers  nor  any  one 
of  the  elaborately  developed  instruments  by  which  we 
administer  our  laws.  Indeed  there  would  hardly  be 
any  laws,  because  laws  themselves  spring  up  because 
a  sufficient  number  of  individual  experiences  have 
educated  the  community  to  the  necessity  for  exact 
definition  of  the  rights  and  duties  in  particular  causes. 
Thus  the  general  or  social  law  is  discovered.  For  a 
man  to  bawl  for  "social  justice"  unless  he  means 
merely  a  general  outcry  against  the  state  of  things  in 
general  is  the  stupidest  of  all  forms  of  the  social  rage 
now  confusing  the  public  mind. 

Every  cause  at  law  has  a  plaintiff  and  a  defendant. 
That  means  that  every  cause  has  a  man  who  wants 
one  thing  and  another  who  wants  something  else  and 
usually  the  diametrical  opposite  of  what  his  opponent 
desires.  Finding  out  who  is  right  is  simple  justice. 
What  else  possibly  can  "social"  justice  be?  If  it 
be  alleged  that  social  justice  has  regard  to  communal 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     147 

rights  or  the  rights  of  groups  against  individuals  or 
the  rights  of  the  masses  as  against  let  us  say  corpora- 
tions there  can  be  not  the  slightest  reason  for  depart- 
ing a  hair's  breadth  from  the  pathway  by  which  society 
has  emerged  to  the  state  of  civilization  which  calls 
for  the  so-called  social  justice.  If  it  be  alleged  that 
justice  is  not  properly  administered  then  the  case  is 
one  against  the  individuals  who  administer  the  instru- 
ments of  justice.  And  as  these  are  for  the  most  part 
in  their  positions  through  the  agencies  which  the  peo- 
ple themselves  have  inaugurated  and  employ,  the  case 
returns  to  the  people  themselves  and  the  circle  is  com- 
plete, namely,  that  social  justice  is  an  appeal  for  a 
higher  state  of  morality  and  righteousness  among  the 
very  people  who  are  calling  for  the  reform. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  there  is  much  of  real  wrong 
and  much  of  iniquity  behind  this  cry  for  social  jus- 
tice. The  powerful  members  of  every  community 
having  been  bereft  of  moral  sense,  property  having 
been  exempted  from  moral  scrutiny  and  the  moral  im- 
perative of  religious  sanctions  as  heretofore  shown, 
naturally  take  over  unless  hindered  the  agencies  for 
the  administration  of  justice  as  they  do  every  other 
agency  of  civilization.  Anybody  who  supposed  that 
the  monopolist  in  principle  would  leave  the  courts  out 
of  his  scheme  of  control  has  no  conception  of  what  the 
monopolistic  principle  is  like.  By  its  very  nature  it 
takes  in  every  avenue  to  the  control  and  increase  of 
property  possession.  If  this  requires  a  judge,  or  a 
jury,  or  a  law,  or  a  sheriff,  or  a  district  attorney,  only 
the  most  simple  minded   can  possibly  imagine  that 


148    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

there  would  be  any  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the 
monopoHst  in  providing  for  the  contingency.  But 
this  is  nothing  specially  new  nor  should  it  throw  sober 
minded  persons  into  rage  and  hysteria  as  though  it 
were  a  matter  of  recent  history  or  discovery.  Least 
of  all  should  it  throw  that  portion  of  the  public,  mor- 
ally desirous  of  improving  social  conditions,  into  a 
frame  of  mind  which  ultimately  can  result  only  in 
strengthening  the  monopolistic  grip  and  still  further 
deadening  the  moral  sense  of  the  masses  of  the  popu- 
lation. For  let  it  be  stated  once  more  that  every 
method  at  reform  which  is  not  soundly  grounded  in 
morals  only  means  in  the  long  run  a  hindrance  in  the 
attainment  of  the  reform  desired.  This  is  the  one 
lesson  which  the  American  nation  needs  to  learn  to- 
day above  all  others. 

It  may  be  worth  while  at  this  point  to  state  a  fact 
which  is  historically  beyond  controversy.  No  single 
one  of  our  public  institutions  has  done  more  to  ad- 
vance humanity  and  render  the  conditions  of  civiliza- 
tion like  what  they  ought  to  be  than  the  courts  of 
justice  and  the  judges  who  have  sat  upon  their 
benches.  This  statement  is  made  with  the  fullest  pos- 
sible recognition  of  the  equally  incontrovertible  fact 
that  judges  have  been  corrupt,  laws  have  been  doctored 
or  nullified  or  defied,  court  procedure  has  been  and  is 
in  many  cases  hopelessly  involved,  and  suited  beauti- 
fully to  the  purposes  of  the  predatory  interests  of 
society  and  justice  so-called  fitly  framed  and  com- 
pacted together  to  make  the  increase  of  property 
among  those  who  have  already  despoiled  the  multi- 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     149 

tudes  of  the  fruits  of  their  thought  and  labor.  Let 
not  one  single  derogatory  fact  be  overlooked.  But 
the  fact  still  remains,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  that 
the  courts  of  law  even  badly  administered  and  the 
judges  human  and  fallible,  as  all  of  them  have  been 
and  must  ever  be,  have  been  the  safeguards  of  civili- 
zation and  when  they  break  down  civilization  will 
break  down  with  them.  Civilization  has  often  dis- 
trusted its  instruments  of  justice.  It  has  often  modi- 
fied, changed  and  discarded  one  kind  for  another. 
But  civilization  has  never  yet  come  to  the  point  until 
now  where  it  was  willing  to  throw  justice  to  the  curb- 
stone and  try  to  administer  the  mysterious  and  futile 
thing  called  "  social  justice  "  on  the  sidewalk.  This 
is  the  frame  of  mind  in  which  we  now  seem  to  be. 
Of  all  the  stupid,  foolish  and  insensate  schemes  for 
social  reformation  and  progress  most  of  the  plans  for 
the  reformation  of  justice  by  throwing  the  courts  to 
the  administration  of  mobs  seem  to  be  the  worst. 
And  they  are  the  worst,  not  because  they  are  not  the 
result  of  a  sincere  desire  for  reform,  nor  because 
there  is  not  a  great  and  urgent  need  for  reform,  but 
because  the  proposed  reforms  will  defeat  the  things 
desired  and  open  the  way  for  a  rule  of  tyranny 
and  injustice  vastly  more  violent  and  vastly  more 
subversive  of  human  progress  than  any  single  thing 
that  can  be  imagined.  The  weakest  court  is  in  the 
great  majority  of  the  cases  which  come  before  it  the 
best  instrument  human  skill  has  devised  for  justice, 
because  as  a  general  rule  it  represents  the  moral 
altitude  of  the  people  who  create  it.     Moreover  the 


150    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

weakest  court  is  not  as  a  rule  corrupt  except  in  a  very 
few  of  the  cases  which  habitually  come  before  it. 
It  may  be  asserted  with  perfect  safety  that  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  at  law  substantial  justice  is  done  as 
between  the  parties  to  the  controversy. 

This  does  not  mean  that  any  two  litigants  ever  go 
out  of  a  court  room  satisfied.  It  is  not  in  human  na- 
ture to  be  beaten  in  any  contention  with  rejoicing. 
But  with  all  our  resentment  against  the  law's  delays 
and  the  intricacies  of  legal  procedure,  and  our  rebel- 
liousness against  what  seems  to  us  and  often  rightly 
the  needless  expense  and  worry  of  getting  a  judicial 
ruling  in  matters  of  controversy,  who  is  there  that 
does  not  rejoice  in  every  opportunity  for  these  things 
when  they  seem  to  further  his  own  cause?  Who  has 
ever  heard  of  a  criminal  who  had  the  slightest  com- 
plaint to  make  against  the  numberless  ways  of  de- 
feating what  to  the  common  mind  seems  like  simple 
and  prompt  justice?  What  defendant  does  not  re- 
joice at  the  innumerable  delays  which  tend  to  confirm 
him  in  possession  of  what  some  other  man  contends 
he  is  holding  unlawfully?  Has  any  man  ever  heard 
of  complaint  against  the  courts,  when  the  courts 
seemed  to  favor  him  in  his  personal  contention  ?  No- 
body!  There  is  no  cry  for  "  social  justice  "  from  the 
litigant  when  the  very  things  he  abstractly  assails 
having  no  business  before  the  courts  are  found  to  be 
useful  for  the  furtherance  of  his  private  interests. 
Men  cry  for  justice  and  against  the  courts  only  when 
something  they  regard  as  personal  to  themselves  has 
been  invaded  or  when  they  have  no  experience  as  lit- 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     151 

igants  whatever.  Then  the  judge  becomes  the 
"  pHant  tool  of  wealth  "  or  even  the  opposing  side. 
Then  the  lawyer  who  failed  to  secure  a  decision  was 
probably  "  bribed  by  the  opposition."  Then  the  law 
of  the  land  becomes  a  "  fraud  "  and  then  there  goes 
up  a  wail  for  the  reformation  of  the  court.  And 
usually  not  until  then.  This  is  not  designed  in  the 
slightest  to  discredit  those  persons  who  see  the  ills  of 
society  and  who  see  millionaires  evading  the  proper 
penalties  of  the  law.  These  are  common  phenomena 
and  have  been  for  centuries  or  at  least  since  wealth 
has  had  any  chance  to  affect  the  decisions  of  courts 
and  the  framing  of  laws. 

But  why  should  any  one  have  been  surprised  at 
this  manifestation  in  our  social  life?  Has  not  prop- 
erty been  taken  out  of  the  realm  of  morals?  Have 
we  not  with  great  unanimity  agreed  that  our  religion 
should  apply  to  everything  except  taxation  and  prop- 
erty? Have  we  not,  just  as  soon  as  we  have  passed 
out  of  the  non-holders  to  the  class  of  holders  of  prop- 
erty adopted  precisely  the  code  and  precisely  the  meth- 
ods which  have  been  handed  down  to  us  since  property 
was  exempted  from  the  sphere  of  religion?  What  is 
there  so  new  in  this  situation  that  calls  for  the  over- 
throwing of  the  most  powerful  single  bulwark  of 
human  rights  and  opening  the  way  for  mob  law  or  no 
law?  Or  is  there  any  considerable  portion  of  the 
sober  thinking  portion  of  humanity  that  believes  that 
such  a  thoroughly  Mexican  process  as  recall  of  judges 
or  recall  of  decisions  will  eventuate,  if  it  succeeds 
logically,  in  anything  but  mob  rule  and  the  extinction 


152    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  real  justice?  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
facts  in  connection  with  the  Mexican  doctrine  that 
most  of  those  who  avow  it  do  not  expect  it  will  be 
much  applied.  Then  all  it  can  possibly  mean  is  a 
threat  to  the  court  which  is  itself  a  form  of  mob  rule, 
which  is,  if  anything,  more  disastrous  than  the  other. 
The  assault  upon  the  courts  is  perhaps  the  last  method 
which  sane  men  can  employ  against  the  evils  of  the 
courts.  Laws  may  be  changed  by  constitutional  proc- 
esses. Judges  can  be  impeached  and  taken  off  the 
bench.  Judicial  procedure  has  often  been  improved 
and  may  be  improved  again.  But  civilization  has  ad- 
vanced and  steadily  advanced  because  there  was  in  the 
background  working  steadily,  and  working  for  the 
most  part  wisely  and  well,  this  instrument  which  as 
between  man  and  man  operated  with  substantial  jus- 
tice, at  least  a  justice  comparable  to  the  moral  altitude 
of  the  people  among  whom  it  existed.  That  remains 
the  great  unquestionable  fact  and  the  one  most  to  be 
kept  in  mind  in  periods  of  social  raging. 

II 

But  the  question  arises  whether  the  real  difficulty 
of  the  situation  as  respects  our  courts  has  been 
touched.  In  our  judgment  it  has  not,  and  there  has 
not  a  cause  come  to  public  attention  in  recent  years 
in  which  the  remedy  for  difficulties  of  administration 
was  not  readily  at  hand.  On  the  other  hand  the  great 
and  the  most  significant  evil  of  all  courts  is  one  for 
which  the  remedy  is  not  so  apparent  and  that  is  the 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     153 

universal  prevalence  of  perjury.  This  is  mainly  what 
is  the  matter  with  justice  and  once  this  evil  could  be 
successfully  attacked  most  of  the  other  troubles  would 
automatically  disappear.  Nothing  has  so  deeply  im- 
pressed observers  of  legal  operations  in  the  last  two 
decades  as  the  glaring  fact  that  while  witnesses  swear 
that  they  will  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  noth- 
ing but  the  truth,  they  have  generally  told  only  what 
it  pleased  them  to  tell,  have  told  much  that  was  mani- 
festly not  true  and  have  conveniently  forgotten  what 
was  most  essential,  to  the  full  explanation  of  the  par- 
ticular matters  under  adjudication.  A  collection  of 
the  famous  lapses  of  memory  on  the  part  of  persons 
entrusted  with  vast  responsibilities  when  they  have 
been  brought  into  courts  of  law  would  reveal  us  as  the 
most  perjured  nation  on  earth.  Mr.  Gladstone  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  that  the  income  tax  had  made 
England  a  nation  of  Hars.  There  is  not  an  assessor 
of  repute  in  this  land  who  will  not  say  that  most  of 
the  people  who  come  before  him  are,  in  his  private 
judgment,  liars.  There  is  not  a  judge  who  in  private 
will  not  tell  you  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  people 
who  testify  in  his  court  do  not  tell  the  truth  and  never 
intended  to  tell  the  truth  when  they  came.  The 
preparation  of  witnesses  by  lawyers  for  the  trial  of 
cases  may  be  said  to  be  the  skilful  arrangement  of 
testimony  for,  at  best,  the  suppression  of  a  part  of  the 
truth.  Reduced  to  lowest  terms  this  is  perjury  and 
perjury  is  one  complete  adequate  and  satisfying  cause 
of  every  judicial  evil  now  complained  of  by  those  who 
are  making  the  grand  assault  upon  our  courts. 


154    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Nor  has  this  evil  stood  still  with  the  advance  of 
years.  Perjury  v^hich  was  once  furtive  and  ashamed 
is  now  open,  daring  and  unashamed.  Witnesses  say 
they  do  not  know  or  have  forgotten,  when  if  what 
they  testify  to  in  this  manner  was  the  truth  they  would 
be  confined  in  insane  asylums  or  have  guardians  ap- 
pointed for  their  estates.  And  with  singular  unanim- 
ity they  forget  only  those  things  which  are  damaging 
to  the  cause  they  have  at  heart.  Let  it  be  admitted 
that  it  is  easy  to  forget  what  one  does  not  like  to 
recall.  Psychologically  this  is  probably  true.  The 
human  mind  does  not  like  to  dwell  upon  unpleasant 
truths.  But  when  such  lapses  are  found  to  be  in  con- 
nection with  written  documents,  signatures,  involving 
the  payment  of  money,  incidents  in  which  the  entire 
framework  for  supplying  the  missing  fact  is  present, 
the  daring  and  notorious  perjury  becomes  one  of  the 
most  impressive  exhibitions  of  the  moral  deterioration 
of  the  general  public  that  can  be  imagined.  It  is  so 
open,  so  apparent,  so  frankly  determined  to  hinder 
the  progress  of  justice  that  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any 
court  with  the  record  before  it  and  with  the  very  best 
intention  can  proceed  with  anything  like  justice,  when 
every  important  cause  is  honeycombed  with  lying, 
deep,  purposeful,  and  planned  with  special  reference 
to  precisely  such  contingencies  as  those  described. 
Double  or  false  sets  of  books  planned  for  exhibition 
to  courts  or  investigating  committees,  false  and  du- 
bious entries,  misleading  notes  and  directions,  are  all 
a  part  of  this  universal  perjuring  program  which  can 
be  seen  in  every  tribunal  of  justice  in  the  land.     And 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     155 

yet,  because  we  have  witnesses  who  are  deliberaie  and 
determined  and  trained  hars,  we  propose  to  throw  the 
court  into  the  scrapheap  and  go  to  curbstone  for  jus- 
tice. 

And  here,  once  more,  the  striking  fact  is  exhibited 
that  the  perjurers  belong  to  no  particular  class  of  so- 
ciety. The  corporate  perjurers  embrace  all  kinds 
from  presidents  to  entry  clerks.  They  embrace  ex- 
perts worth  many  thousands  of  annual  salary  and 
laborers  working  for  the  daily  wage.  They  take  in 
men  eminent  in  business,  transportation,  law  and 
science  and  often  education.  They  are  graduates  of 
all  kinds  of  colleges  and  many  of  them  are  famous 
for  benevolences  and  religious  activity.  Liars,  all, 
they  come  into  the  courts  of  justice  and  lie  with  force, 
freedom  and  skill  and  throw  upon  the  judges  and  the 
courts  the  odium  of  making  decisions  upon  evidence 
which  nobody  in  private  believes  and  which  nobody 
but  an  absolute  idiot  would  believe.  One  might  as 
well  kick  a  carriage  that  did  not  move  because  a  horse 
balks  as  attack  the  courts  for  such  results.  What 
shall  the  court  decide  upon  if  not  evidence?  What 
shall  a  judge  base  his  decision  upon,  if  not  upon 
what  witnesses  tell  under  oath?  And  if  courts  are  to 
be  governed  by  evidence  and  the  evidence  is  so  largely 
mixed  with  lies,  deliberately  framed,  where  shall  we 
go  for  a  remedy  ?  But  this  is  a  phase  of  this  problem 
that  is  rarely  if  ever  touched  upon  in  the  discussion  of 
the  miscarriage  of  justice.  The  revision  of  the  rules 
of  evidence  has  been  suggested  but  can  any  rules  trap 
a  witness  determined  not  to  tell  the  truth  or  who  can 


156    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

forget  in  a  critical  moment?  When  the  case  has  been 
carried  far  away  from  the  one  in  which  the  testimony 
was  originally  taken,  what  judge  has  the  supernatural 
intuition  that  can  make  him,  in  every  case,  decide 
whether  the  witness  did  or  did  not  really  know  and 
was  withholding  the  truth  ?  We  have  here  not  a  legal 
matter  but  a  moral  question  of  the  first  order.  And 
it  may  as  well  be  stated  first  as  last  that  until  we  get 
into  the  common  people  of  this  country  a  higher  re- 
gard for  truth,  especially  truth  in  controversy,  justice 
will  always  mean  what  it  means  now,  the  best  possible 
effort,  human  nature  being  what  it  is,  to  get  the  truth 
out  of  a  mass  of  liars  determined  to  tell  only  a  part 
of  it  and  that  part  favorable  to  themselves.  This  is 
not  a  matter  of  "  social  justice."  It  is  a  question  of 
personal  morality.  No  reflecting  man  will  for  an  in- 
stant believe  that  the  average  judge,  even  of  the  sec- 
ond class,  would  not  rather  have  every  decision  of  his 
court  represent  absolute  justice  than  anything  else.  It 
is  pure  folly  or  superstition  to  imagine  a  man  capable 
of  sitting  on  a  bench  would  feel  otherwise.  But 
what  shall  we  do?  He  sees  that  no  influence  that  or- 
dinarily should  operate  between  man  and  man  can  get 
the  truth  told  where  property  interests  are  involved. 
He  sees  so-called  religious  men,  high  in  ecclesiastical 
influence  and  position,  lie  just  like  common  rascals 
who  can  be  hired  to  testify  to  anything  for  the  price 
of  a  drink.  He  sees  the  sanctity  of  the  oath  made  a 
joke  every  day  of  his  life.  And  out  of  this  muck  of 
perjury,  deliberately  planned  and  arranged  for,  with 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     157 

precision  and  minuteness,  he  is  to  extract  justice! 
That  is  the  task  of  the  American  judge  of  to-day. 

One  cannot  in  very  truth  repress  admiration  for  the 
skill  with  which  this  wholesale  perjury  is  concocted. 
The  ingenuity  with  which  moral  perplexities  are  met 
and  apparently  satisfied,  the  arrangement  of  things 
apparently  remote,  so  that  at  the  proper  time  they  may 
come  to  the  surface  as  corroboratory  evidence,  the 
sublimely  wonderful  doctoring  of  records  and  books, 
are  things  to  excite  the  utmiost  admiration  as  products 
of  the  human  mind.  The  acute  collocation  of  words, 
the  equivocal  statement  of  facts,  the  beautiful  jugglery 
of  truth  and  falsehood,  are  a  vast  and  amazing  tribute 
to  the  possibilities  of  the  human  intellect.  But  side 
by  side  with  this  amazing  exhibition  of  mental  force, 
power  and  foresight  come  the  hardly  less  amazing  and 
dazzling  lapses  of  recollection,  which  are  as  miracu- 
lous in  their  precision  and  significance  as  the  others 
are  in  the  effectiveness  and  orderly  progression.  To 
be  able  to  forget  with  such  unerring  accuracy  at  the 
right  moment,  the  right  thing,  the  material  fact,  the 
crux  of  the  problem !     Sublime  is  the  only  word ! 

Added  to  this  there  is  another  psychological  fact 
which  must  be  taken  into  the  account.  Lying  has  this 
quality  that  persisted  in,  it  soon  deceives  the  very  liars 
themselves,  who  become  unable  to  distinguish  the 
truth  when  they  see  it.  A  famous  advocate  said  of 
a  certain  felon  who  was  convicted  in  New  York  that 
he  believed  that  in  telling  some  of  his  most  obvious 
lies,  the  felon  himself  believed  he  was  telling  the  truth! 


158    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

He  had  carried  on  the  process  so  long  that  he  beHeved 
himself  to  be  telling  the  truth.  Deceiving  he  was 
himself  most  deceived  of  all.  But  this  only  compli- 
cates the  problem  for  the  court.  Are  we  to  club 
judges  because  we  cannot  get  behind  the  psychological 
intricacies  of  long  continued  experienced  and  double 
dyed  liars?  The  same  infection  applies  to  records  of 
one  kind  and  another.  False  entries  soon  become 
mere  automatic  affairs  and  the  clerk  who  makes  them 
habitually  may  in  time  fail  to  perceive  which  is  the 
false  and  which  is  the  true.  It  certainly  would  not  be 
strange  if  this  were  the  case,  especially  when  we  see 
that  this  is  the  commonest  ecclesiastical  vice.  For  let 
us  not  mislead  ourselves  in  this  matter,  the  liars  of  the 
ecclesiastical  bodies  are  not  different  in  kind,  but  only 
and  not  always  in  degree,  from  those  of  business  and 
litigation  generally.  One  can  see  almost  any  Sunday 
men  of  highest  character  for  probity  obviously  lying 
in  the  interest  of  Christian  truth!  There  is  hardly 
an  interest  which  does  not  breed  this  sort  of  thing, 
even  in  innocent  persons,  who  have  their  causes  very 
much  at  heart.  But  because  we  all  want  our  cause  to 
be  strongly  represented,  because  we  desire  to  see  jus- 
tice and  love  and  mercy  prevail,  and  are  through  that 
very  zeal  led  into  misrepresentation  and  falsehood, 
are  we  to  take  out  the  judge  from  his  court  and  assail, 
if  not  morally  lynch  him,  because  he  cannot  untangle 
by  some  occult  method  the  admixture  of  truth  and 
error?  Is  this  the  way  to  secure  the  mythical  thing 
called  "  social  justice  "  ?  Is  this  the  way  to  secure 
any  kind  of  justice  whatever? 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     159 

And  when  to  all  this  there  are  added  the  natural  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  and  judgment  and  interpretation 
of  the  same  facts,  the  possibilities  of  miscarriage  of 
justice  are  immensely  increased.  Men  should  wonder 
not  that  the  courts  do  so  poorly  in  these  matters  but 
that  they  do  so  well.  For,  on  the  whole,  and  in  the 
long  run,  as  before  stated,  the  courts  do  out  of  the 
mass  of  lying  and  falsehood  really  get  some  sort  of 
understanding  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  causes  they 
adjudicate  and  do  really,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  get 
something  which  often  resembles  justice. 

Perjury  is  the  real  source  of  the  corruption  of  jus- 
tice. Perjury  practised,  by  all  kinds  of  men,  high, 
low,  educated,  ignorant,  rich,  poor,  in  big  business,  in 
little  business,  with  college  degrees,  with  ecclesiastical 
connection  and  repute,  with  no  religion  and  with  all 
religions,  all-pervasive  perjury,  that  is  what  ails  our 
courts  and  this  is  the  root  of  the  trouble  with  the 
administration  of  justice.  And  while  the  rules  of 
evidence  may  be  altered,  and  while  the  practise  of  the 
courts  may  be  simplified,  and  while  justice  may  be 
made  cheaper  and  whether  we  have  a  public  defender 
or  a  miscellaneous  bar,  the  fact  will  still  remain  that 
lying  witnesses  will  make  the  course  of  justice  often 
futile.  And  they  will  continue  to  lie,  because  the 
thing  they  lie  about  most  and  most  persistently  for 
and  about,  namely  property  —  has  been  exempted 
from  the  operation  of  the  one  thing  which  can  secure 
truth,  namely,  pure  and  undefiled  religion.  This  is 
the  impressive  and  overwhelming  fact  which  the  seek- 
ers for  "  social  justice  "  must  face  before  all  else. 


i6o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

III 

And  for  this  orgy  of  lying,  this  wild  riot  of  perjury 
we  are  offered  the  recall  of  judges  or  the  recall  of 
decisions  or  both !  It  seems  almost  beyond  belief  that 
any  serious  man  familiar  with  the  facts  should  offer 
such  a  program.  Why  not  hack  a  millwheel  to  pieces 
because  the  water  is  low  ?  No  single  thing  could  illus- 
trate the  length  to  which  insensate  social  rage  has 
gone  than  these  propositions.  In  the  first  place,  as 
indicated,  the  recall  of  a  judge  who  has  made  a  de- 
cision which  the  mob  may  not  like  is  to  take  from  his 
place  the  one  man  who  has  patiently  listened  to  all 
sides  of  the  controversy.  And  to  take  it  to  the  curb- 
stone is  to  take  it  to  the  very  persons  who  know  least 
about  the  whole  matter.  It  would  seem  as  if  stupid- 
ity or  demagogy  or  both  could  not  go  further.  But 
this  is  not  the  main  objection  to  the  recall,  whether  of 
judges  or  decisions.  The  principal  and  the  enduring 
objection  is  that  this  is  the  surest  possible  means  of 
defeating  the  very  object  which  the  recallers  desire. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  prattle  in  our  country  about 
the  sanity  of  our  citizenship  and  in  certain  large  mat- 
ters there  is  an  amazing  power  in  public  opinion. 
But  to  question  its  technical  skill,  and  its  sobriety  of 
judgment,  in  matters  concerning  which  it  has  no 
knoAvledge  is  not  to  impeach  the  value  of  democracy! 
When  any  one  questions  the  ability  of  the  voting 
masses  to  decide  properly  and  with  wisdom  the  most 
intricate  questions  of  government  and  industry  and 
law,  he  is  usually  assailed  as  having  no  faith  in  democ- 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     161 

racy.  But  nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth.  There 
is  nothing  supernatural  about  democracy  as  such. 
We  have  long  given  up  infallibility  in  religion.  Shall 
we  assume  infallibility  of  the  mob?  Shall  we  go  back 
to  medieval  notions,  in  the  matter  with  which  the  best 
hopes  and  greatest  interests  of  man  are  bound  up,  by 
assuming  that  a  miscellaneous  group  of  citizens  are 
better  able  to  decide  intricate  questions  of  justice  be- 
tween man  and  man  than  a  trained  and  skilful  and 
reasonably  honest  man  on  the  bench? 

But  the  more  impressive  fact  that  stares  us  in  the 
face  is  that  we  shall  never  get,  never  have  been  able 
yet  to  get  it,  the  decision  of  the  very  court  to  which  we 
are  thus  making  our  appeal.  Has  any  state  in  this 
land  ever  cast  approximately  its  full  vote  even  in  the 
most  fiercely  contested  elections  with  all  the  political 
machinery  in  motion  and  every  stump  resounding  with 
frantic  appeals  to  save  the  nation  from  impending 
ruin?  What  would  happen,  nay  what  has  happened, 
when  for  any  reason  political  committees  have  felt  it 
needless  or  found  themselves  unable  to  carry  thou- 
sands of  voters  to  the  polls?  Are  we  not  constantly 
governed  by  minorities?  Do  we  not  awake  at  every 
election  to  the  fact  that  great  blocks  of  voters  never 
go  to  the  polls  and  other  great  blocks  do  not  even 
register?  Has  it  not  been  true  that  small  compact 
bodies  of  determined  politicians  have  again  and  again 
carried  through  their  purposes  because  the  so-called 
better  element  forgot  all  about  the  primaries  or  the 
election  or  both?  And  if  we  are  not  able  to  get  the 
decisions  of  our  democracy  upon  the   fundamental 


l62    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

questions  of  government,  are  we  likely  to  get  them 
upon  causes  which  are  thrown  at  them  from  the 
courts?  It  must  be  a  strange  sort  of  faith  in  democ- 
racy that  can  expect  it  to  change  its  nature  instanta- 
neously in  these  particular  matters,  when  it  remains, 
so  much  of  it,  inert  in  matters  of  much  more  moment 
than  any  single  case  in  court  can  be!  And  if  it  is  thus 
aroused,  does  it  not  argue,  almost  ipso  facto  that  some 
vast  prejudice  is  at  work,  which  creates  the  very  worst 
atmosphere  for  securing  a  really  just  decision?  The 
mob  court  thus  offered  as  a  substitute  for  the  regular 
judicial  form  of  procedure  is  itself  evidence  of  a  pas- 
sionate prejudice  which  tends  to  exclude  justice. 
And  who  will  benefit,  if  a  ruling  is  thus  thrown  to  the 
masses  for  decision,  masses  which  must  rely  upon 
fragmentary  newspaper  reports,  upon  partial  and 
partisan  statements  of  the  case,  masses  which  see  no 
witnesses,  masses  which  are  themselves  when  in  court, 
tinctured  with  the  same  virus  of  falsehood  by  which 
probably  the  decision  was  induced?  Who  but  the 
interests,  most  able  and  most  ready  to  employ  the 
agencies  of  deception  and  trickery,  and  most  able  to 
spend  money  for  publicity  and  the  misdirection  of 
public  opinion?  Is  not  this  the  most  obvious  result 
of  such  a  policy?  And  who  will  suffer  most,  under 
such  circumstances?  The  very  people  whose  wrongs 
we  are  trying  to  right.  The  very  people  who  are 
now  burdened  and  harassed,  because  we  have  caused 
lying  to  become  such  a  fine  art  and  have  clogged  up 
our  courts  with  every  kind  of  chicanery  and  deceit. 
Let  no  one  be  deceived  in  this  matter.     The  surest 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     163 

way  of  destroying  the  courts,  as  instruments  of  jus- 
tice, is  to  place  a  revisionary  mob  outside  of  the 
court  room  itself,  in  part  already  corrupt,  and  to  be 
made  the  subject  of  every  kind  of  temptation  and  ex- 
tending only,  for  those  most  capable  of  producing  it, 
the  area  of  public  corruption  and  falsehood.  That  is 
what  the  recall  of  decisions  and  judges  really  means, 
and  that  would  be  a  social  disaster  so  great  that  most 
men  cannot  possibly  imagine  it  taking  place  if  the 
people  have  their  eyes  op^n.  Let  those  of  us  espe- 
cially who  want  what  we  call  "  social  justice "  be- 
ware how  we  play  into  the  hands  of  those  who  alone 
can  profit  by  anarchy  in  the  administration  of  the  law. 
And  let  those  who  profess  to  believe  in  Christianity 
look  to  it  that  they  do  not  pull  down  the  very  founda- 
tions of  justice  itself  by  throwing  to  the  winds  the 
laboriously  attained  results  of  the  experience  of  man- 
kind. No  court  can  withstand  ultimately  the  con- 
demnation of  enlightened  public  opinion.  No  corrupt 
judge  can  long  operate  at  a  lower  moral  altitude  than 
that  of  the  public  am'ong  which  his  activities  are  dis- 
played. The  remedy  for  such  judges  is  at  hand  and 
has  been  applied  and  can  be  applied  again.  Where 
there  is  an  elective  judiciary  the  very  choice  in  the 
judge  can  be  made  exact  at  the  very  outset,  though, 
as  stated  already,  such  a  judge  will  represent  the 
moral  altitude  of  his  community  and  nothing  else. 
But  to  endeavor  a  revisionary  judgment  by  popular 
appeal  seems  very  much  like  a  plebiscite  on  a  case  of 
typhoid  fever! 

It  is  hardly  to  the  credit  of  democracy  itself  that 


164    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

such  a  proposition  can  have  the  \'ogue  that  it  seems  to 
have  and  one  reason  why  it  has  had  such  widespread 
acceptance  and  presentation  is  because  we  are  all  so 
enmeshed  in  the  common  muck  of  guilt.  We  are 
ready  enough  to  accept  anything  that  seems  to  offer 
relief,  because  in  the  consciousness  of  us  all  there  is 
the  knowledge  that  in  matters  of  property  we  have 
no  morals  and  we  grasp  vaguely  at  anything  that 
seems  to  offer  relief  and  often  without  thought  of 
the  fresh  dangers  into  which  we  are  thus  led.  Democ- 
racy will  be  really  great  when  it  recognizes  its  own 
limitations.  Popular  government  will  be  really  ad- 
mirable when  it  recognizes  what  it  cannot  do  and 
ought  not  to  attempt.  Liberty  is  the  priceless  posses- 
sion of  mankind,  and  when  liberty  under  the  law  be- 
comes a  matter  of  curbstone  justice  the  foundation  of 
the  whole  structure  of  democracy  has  been  broken 
down.  Democracy  will  then  only  exist  till  the  strong 
tyrant  appears  to  take  possession  of  our  government 
and  of  us  all.  Curbstone  justice  is  but  lynch  law  in 
another  form,  and  when  the  supreme  lyncher  appears 
as  he  has  already  appeared  in  some  forms,  in  the  use 
of  the  agencies  of  government  for  private  ends  and 
private  revenges  throughout  the  country,  the  end  of 
democracy  is  in  sight.  The  recall  of  judges  is  the 
beginning  of  lynch  law  and  nothing  else  and  the  only 
hope  concerning  it  is  that  it  will  not  be  used  as  many 
of  the  instruments  for  self  government  with  which 
democracy  has  provided  itself  are  not  used,  even  the 
very  ballot  itself. 

And  then  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  instru- 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     165 

ments  by  which  the  matters  complained  of  with  re- 
spect to  the  courts  are  induced  and  carried  on  by  the 
people  themselves.  The  "  thousands  of  shysters,  am- 
bulance chasers  and  other  unworthy  members  of  the 
(legal)  profession  whose  misdeeds  are  doing  more 
than  all  other  agencies  combined  to  bring  the  profes- 
sion into  public  contempt  and  to  destroy  that  respect 
for  the  law  which  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  success 
and  happiness  of  organized  society,"  to  quote  the  dean 
of  one  of  our  law  schools,  are  directly  employed  by 
persons  who  hope  and  expect  to  derive  some  personal 
benefit  from  their  labors.  Without  an  actual  plain- 
tiff and  an  actual  defendant  there  can  be  no  litigation 
before  a  court.  All  such  are  a  part  and  parcel  of  the 
social  body  and  these  are  they  who  make  every  possi- 
ble miscarriage  of  justice.  No  court  ever  organized 
or  that  ever  is  to  be  organized  can  successfully  over- 
come the  moral  derelictions  of  society  itself.  The 
best  such  a  court  can  do  is  to  pronounce  as  between 
persons  equally  ready  to  employ  every  resource  of 
falsehood,  double  dealing  and  misapplication  of  rem- 
edies designed  to  be  operated  in  the  interest  of  up- 
rightness and  justice  between  man  and  man.  The 
same  revolver  that  kills  a 'burglar  in  self-defense  may 
be  used  and  is  used  in  a  wicked  and  shameful  murder. 
To  hold  the  revolver  guilty  and  forget  the  hand  that 
wields  it  is  not  only  stupidity  but  a  species  of  wicked- 
ness itself.  The  courts  are  for  common  defense  and 
protection.  If  they  have  become  instruments  of 
tyranny  and  offense  it  is  because  they  have  been  so 
employed  by  the  people  themselves.     To  substitute  for 


i66    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  orderly  processes  of  impeachment  and  careful  re- 
view of  the  proceedings  of  an  unjust  or  corrupt  judge, 
the  recall  is  to  take  a  step  backward  into  the  barbar- 
ism from  which  we  thought  we  had  in  part,  at  least, 
emerged. 

IV 

But  what  has  Christianity,  as  the  organized  religion 
of  the  land,  to  say  to  all  this?  Indeed,  it  may  be 
asked,  what  has  Christianity  had  to  say  in  the  past  to 
all  these  conditions,  while  they  have  been  accumulat- 
ing, in  the  face  and  eyes  of  civilization?  Substan- 
tially nothing.  The  courts  have  had  to  do  mainly 
with  property  and  property  rights.  But  religion  hav- 
ing been  successfully  divorced  from  property,  and 
money  having  been  excluded  from  the  consideration 
of  religious  men,  except  in  the  light  of  voluntary 
benevolence,  it  is  not  strange  that  Christianity  has  had 
no  voice  in  the  presence  of  abuses  that  have  grown  up 
and  which  were  plainly  within  the  natural  sphere  of 
its  activity  and  instruction.  Christianity  has  had  as 
one  of  its  oldest  doctrines  that  no  man  should  bear 
false  witness.  But  while  the  doctrine  has  not  per- 
ished, its  modern  applications  have  been  so  meager 
and  when  applied  so  silly  that  it  may  as  well  not  have 
had  the  doctrine  at  all.  Lying  and  perjury  are  moral 
defects  which  if  attacked  and  attacked  by  the  church, 
with  all  its  might  and  power,  might  have  held  in  leash 
the  fearful  orgy  which  has  tended  to  disrupt  civiliza- 
tion at  its  very  foundation.  Who  has  ever  heard  a 
sermon  on  the  sanctity  of  an  oath?     Who  has  ever 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     167 

heard  the  fearful  personal  illustrations  furnished  by 
our  courts  and  matters  of  common  knowledge  made 
the  subjects  of  direct  and  penetrating  moral  teach- 
ing? What  organized  system  of  instruction  deals 
with  these  things  as  they  must  be  dealt  with,  if  we  are 
ever  to  have  any  sort  of  conception  of  personal  verac- 
ity, by  which  the  courts  can  be  cleansed  from  the 
reign  of  liars  and  their  instruments?  What  liar, 
known  and  understood  to  be  such,  has  ever  been  ex- 
pelled from  his  pew  and  made  an  example  for  the 
youth  of  the  land  as  an  illustration  of  what  not  to  do, 
and  also  as  a  signal  of  the  opinion  of  the  church  con- 
cerning such  deeds  ?  Obviously  this  is  a  matter  which 
belongs  to  the^  Christian  church  and  its  leaders  and 
its  teachers. 

Christianity  by  abandoning  these  duties  has  been 
the  ally  of  destruction  and  has  opened  itself  to  the 
just  reproach  of  honorable  men  that  it  is  the  refuge 
of  every  form  of  scoundrelism  if  only  it  belongs  to 
the  ruling  cult,  which  being  interpreted,  usually  means 
the  financial  oligarchy  by  which  it  is  generally  gov- 
erned. Of  this  more  later.  But  for  the  present  it 
may  be  stated  and  no  man  familiar  with  the  machinery 
of  ecclesiastical  procedure  in  this  country  will  dare  to 
deny  it,  that  the  great  and  crying  offenses  which  have 
been  brought  to  light  concerning  men  well  known  and 
of  high  standing  in  religious  circles,  have  never  re- 
ceived even  the  careful  moral  scrutiny  of  the  church, 
much  less  its  formal  judgment  and  condemnation.  It 
is  not  here  urged  that  the  church  shall  set  up  a  moral 
inquisition.     It  is  the  familiar  cry,  whenever  such  an 


i68    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

argument  as  that  here  urged  is  presented,  that  the 
moral  freedom  of  individuals  is  being  invaded  and  a 
pharasaic  standard  is  being  set  up  to  bring  all  men 
into  bondage  and  fear.  But  is  this  the  case?  Are 
perjurers  of  high  degree  to  be  passed  over,  and  the 
church  to  carry  its  fearful  burden  of  shame  and  dis- 
grace? Are  we  to  take  the  ground  that  no  matter 
what  judgment  the  world  at  large  pronounces,  what 
the  administration  of  courts  and  public  service  inves- 
tigation reveals,  these  persons  shall  still  officiate  at 
the  communion  table  and  stand  before  the  congrega- 
tion as  the  symbolic  figures  of  piety  and  Christian 
behavior?  Yet  this  is  what  we  have  done  and  this  is 
what  we  are  doing  and  it  is  the  shame  of  Christianity 
and  its  church  that  no  church  of  any  name  or  creed 
has  ever  dared  except  in  the  most  shameful  cases, 
where  public  opinion  has  made  the  continuance  of  the 
anomaly  impossible,  or  where  the  offender  himself 
took  himself  out  of  the  public  gaze,  to  stand  morally 
erect  and  pronounce  its  verdict  of  truth  and  upright- 
ness. And  if  the  church  does  not  do  this,  what  insti- 
tution in  society  shall  perform  the  service? 

On  the  contrary  she  has  held  up,  denounced  and 
assailed  and  expelled  men  against  whose  moral  purity 
she  had  not  one  syllable  to  utter,  because  they  varied 
a  hair's  breadth  from  her  metaphysical  creeds!  She 
has  made  service  impossible  to  men  against  whose 
purity  of  life  she  had  not  one  breath  to  whisper,  in 
her  pulpits,  because  they  dared  to  tell  the  moral  truths, 
for  the  lack  of  which  society  as  a  whole  is  reeking 
with  filth  and  shame.     This  she  has  done,  though  hap- 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     169 

pily  she  is  doing  it  less  under  the  lash  of  outraged  and 
enlightened  public  opinion,  mainly  without  rather  than 
within  the  church.  Let  no  man  accuse  us  of  want  of 
respect  for  doctrinal  interests  or  the  soundest  demand 
for  scholarship,  wisdom,  knowledge  and  thorough 
training  for  the  Christian  pulpit.  Let  us  even  admit 
the  need  for  a  certain  uniformity  of  opinion  for  co- 
operation and  successful  organization.  But  to  expel 
the  preacher  for  shght  variations  of  doctrines,  most 
of  which  are  in  the  region  of  nebulous  metaphysics, 
while  exalting  the  liar  and  perjurer  who  sits  in  the 
pew  or  officiates  in  the  ecclesiastical  coimcil,  is  not 
only  not  Christianity,  but  not  religion  of  any  kind  and 
the  most  shameful  betrayal  of  the  very  name  and 
purposes  of  Jesus  Christ.  Justice  is  bound  hand  and 
foot  to  the  prevailing  sin  of  perjury.  The  perjurers 
are  of  every  type  and  form  and  cult,  religious  as  well 
as  non-religious.  If  we  wish  to  grapple  with  this 
problem  in  a  real  vital  fashion,  justice  must  begin  at 
the  house  of  God.  We  must  make  the  Christian  reli- 
gion alter,  in  some  fashion,  the  behavior  of  the  per- 
sons who  profess  to  have  it,  when  it  comes  to  testi- 
fying in  the  courts,  under  the  sanctity  of  the  oath 
and  make  a  man  who  swears  to  tell  the  truth,  the 
whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  do  something 
approximating  that  or  at  least  have  it  modified  only 
by  the  natural  infirmities  of  humanity. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  such  a  moral  demand  as  this, 
which  every  man  must  recognize  as  absolutely  just 
and  of  the  very  nature  of  Christianity,  that  we  see 
what   a   revolutionary    force    Christianity   really   is. 


lyo    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Moreover  it  is  in  the  light  of  such  a  conception  of  the 
possibilities  of  the  Christian  religion  that  we  see  how 
foolish  and  superficial  are  most  of  the  panaceas  pro- 
posed for  the  reformation  and  dehverance  of  society. 
These  at  best  grapple  with  certain  conditions.  But 
Christianity  grapples  with  the  men  who  make  and 
perpetuate  the  conditions.  Take  out  from  under 
every  social  crime  the  responsible  agent,  take  out  from 
under  every  social  wrong  its  financial  exploiter,  take 
out  from  every  court  its  dishonest  litigant  and  his 
shyster  representative,  and  all  will  shine  with  purity 
and  all  will  glow  with  the  intimations  of  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  But  whose  business  is  this  ? 
Not  of  social  settlements  or  legislatures  or  public 
service  commissions  or  investigation  tribunals!  It  is 
the  business  of  organized  Christianity,  represented  by 
the  Christian  church.  But  well-nigh  voiceless  she  has 
staggered  along,  happy  to  be  the  bond  servant  of  the 
very  criminals  who  have  denuded  her  of  her  strength 
and  made  her  very  name  often  the  symbol  of  syco- 
phancy and  shame.  Yet  there  is  nothing  in  her  war- 
rant of  existence  to  suggest  this!  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  still  here  and  its  teaching  is  perfectly 
intelligible  in  these  matters  without  the  aid  of  meta- 
physics or  encyclopaedias!  The  personality  and  the 
example  of  Jesus  Christ  are  here  clearly  outlined  and 
His  message  and  teaching  can  be  read  and  understood 
by  all!  But  Christianity  has  carefully  hidden  away 
the  great  practical  application  of  her  gospel  and 
gloriously  invaded  foreign  lands  and  foreign  evils, 
while  at  home  she  was  corrupted  and  degraded  by 


Social  Justice  on  the  Curbstone     171 

those  who  stood  in  the  forefront  of  her  roster  of 
illustrious  sons! 

That  this  is  no  simple  task  may  well  be  admitted 
and  that  it  may  be  demanded  more  readily  than  com- 
plied with  may  also  be  conceded.  But  we  have  not 
been  without  martyrdoms  for  minor  and  spurious 
causes  in  the  Christian  church  in  recent  times.  If  we 
must  have  our  martyrs,  then  in  the  name  of  decency 
and  morality  let  us  have  them  for  genuine  Christian- 
ity. If  we  must  break  Christian  ministers,  and  cast 
out  men  from  the  synagogue,  let  us  at  least  cast  them 
out  for  something  that  has  a  real  relation  to  the  vital 
interests  of  mankind.  No  man  who  has  any  concep- 
tion of  the  Christian  gospel  will  whine  over  a  martyr- 
dom which  is  based  upon  a  genuine  devotion  to  the 
vital  truths  of  Christianity.  Let  us  have  men  who 
will  dare  to  be  cast  forth  because  they  are  ready  to 
say  "  Thou  art  the  man ! "  The  story  of  the  ewe 
lamb  is  told  often  enough,  but  it  stops  with  the  dec- 
larative accusation  which  gives  it  point.  The  wrongs 
of  men  are  aired  often  enough,  but  there  has  not  yet 
been  the  grip  and  grasp  of  moral  courage  to  point 
out  the  offender  even  when  every  newspaper,  every 
magazine,  every  stump,  rings  with  his  name  and  his 
crimes.  If  there  has  been  a  place  of  refuge  for  the 
malefactor  of  every  kind,  especially  the  high  class 
perjurer  who  has  made  our  courts  an  object  of  scorn, 
where  has  it  been  if  not  the  church?  There  at  least 
he  has  been  safe.  There  still  circulated  the  perjured 
word  at  face  value  and  there  the  pious  pretences  were 
still  accepted  while  all  the  world  looked  on  with  won- 


172    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

der  and  pain!  Let  the  Christian  church  revivify  its 
teaching  against  false  witness,  let  it  make  the  liar, 
whether  he  be  of  high  or  low  degree,  to  stand  forth  in 
contempt,  let  her  denounce  the  men  who  are  within 
her  own  border,  who  make  mockery  of  justice  and  the 
issue  will  be  clear  and  we  shall  have  not  ideal  justice 
through  our  courts,  but  at  least  a  purifying  of  the 
atmosphere  and  best  of  all  an  attack  of  the  trouble  at 
its  source! 


CHAPTER  VII 
FEMINISM 


The  universal  prevalence  of  the  androcentric  world  view, 
shared  by  men  and  women  alike,  acts  like  a  wet  blanket  on  all 
the  genial  fire  of  the  female  sex.  Let  this  be  once  removed, 
and  woman's  true  relation  to  society  be  generally  perceived  and 
all  this  will  be  changed.  We  have  no  conception  of  the  real 
amount  of  talent  or  of  genius  possessed  by  women.  It  is  prob- 
ably not  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  men  even  now,  and  a  few 
generations  of  enlightened  opinion  on  the  subject,  if  shared  by 
both  sexes,  would  perhaps  show  the  difference  is  qualitative  only. 
If  this  is  so,  the  gain  in  developing  it  would  be  greater  than 
merely  doubling  the  number  of  social  agents,  for  women  will 
strike  out  according  to  their  natural  inclinations  and  cultivate 
fields  that  men  would  never  have  cultivated.  They  will  thus 
add  to  the  breadth,  if  they  do  not  add  to  the  depth  of  the 
world's  progress. 

Lester  F.  Ward,  "Applied  Sociology." 


CHAPTER  VII 

FEMINISM 


IT  was  not  to  be  expected  that  in  the  world-wide 
social  turmoil  the  cause  of  women  should  be  over- 
looked. It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  the  evolution 
of  civilization  the  relations  of  women  to  the  wider 
activities  of  mankind  should  and  would  receive  a  great 
deal  of  attention  and  thought.  It  was  to  be  expected 
that  as  a  result  many  received  notions  of  the  women's 
sphere  would  have  to  be  modified  or  abandoned  alto- 
gether. All  these  natural  expectations  have  been  ful- 
filled. The  woman  question  politically  now  takes  in 
not  merely  the  question  of  suffrage,  but  almost  every 
form  of  violation  of  the  penal  code  in  England  and  is 
extending  this  form  of  activity  in  America.  Assaults 
upon  ministers  of  state  in  England,  which  a  few  gen- 
erations ago  would  have  been  considered  symbolic  of 
possible  overthrow  of  the  national  constitution,  are 
now  commonplaces  and  looked  for  at  the  breakfast 
table  as  a  part  of  the  daily  news.  Suffrage  militancy 
in  England  and  syndicalism  in  our  own  land  seem  to 
run  upon  about  the  same  lines  and  with  the  general 
processes  of  reasoning.  Broadly  speaking  they  may 
be  said  to  rest  upon  the  same  logical  foundation,  in 

I7S 


176    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

so  far  as  there  can  be  any  logical  foundation  in  such 
proceedings.  In  our  own  land  the  movement  has 
aside  from  its  political  expansion  taken  the  form  of 
innumerable  movements  for  the  uplifting  of  women 
in  industry,  care  for  wage  earners,  mothers'  pensions, 
with  investigations  into  the  causes  and  extent  of  white 
slavery  and  similar  phenomena.  The  woman  phase 
of  civilization  has  multiplied  material  for  discussion 
and  reflection  so  rapidly,  that  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  as  a  final  result  we  should  have  a  singular  and 
amazing  compound  of  all  these  things,  called  feminism, 
which  now  engages  not  only  the  serious  and  earnest 
thought  of  many  persons  of  sound  and  healthful  moral 
status  but  also  of  vast  numbers  of  persons  whose  moral 
status  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  characterize  with 
justice  or  clearness. 

No  adequate  definition  of  feminism  can  be  given  or 
has  been  given.  In  general  it  means  the  liberation  of 
women  from  most  of  the  obligations  which  hitherto 
have  rested  upon  them  and  the  assumption  of  a  great 
number  of  social,  industrial  and  political  privileges 
and  duties,  from  which  they  have  hitherto  been  ex- 
cluded or  released.  With  a  program  which  looks  to 
the  deliverance  of  any  human  being  from  any  unnat- 
ural or  unjust  restraint,  Christianity  can  have  not  the 
slightest  quarrel.  It  is  the  business  of  Christianity 
to  engage  in  just  such  contests  and  as  a  matter  of 
history,  Christianity  has  always  been  doing  this  when 
it  has  been  itself.  With  respect  to  women  especially, 
it  may  be  said  that  Christianity  has  waged  its  most 
successful  war  with  the  sins  and  iniquities  of  mankind. 


Feminism  177 

But  after  all  is  said,  and  we  have  admitted  many  or 
even  most  of  the  allegations  against  which  the  fem- 
inists are  striving,  it  still  remains  true  that  every  such 
wrong  has  to  be  considered  in  its  relations  to  the  total 
problem,  if  we  are  to  make  any  successful  advance 
either  for  women  or  for  civilization.  As  indicated 
in  the  previous  chapter,  we  can  throw  our  justices  out 
on  the  street  and  ask  the  mob  to  pass  upon  their  fitness 
for  office,  if  we  please,  but  that  does  not  mean  that 
we  have  materially  advanced  the  cause  of  justice.  In 
a  similar  way  we  may  remove  all  the  disabilities,  ad- 
mitting them  to  be  such,  under  which  women  now 
labor  and  yet  leave  woman  in  no  better  position  than 
she  was  before.  What  shall  be  done  in  any  given 
case  should  be  determined  largely  upon  a  careful 
weighing  of  the  probabilities  of  the  case  and  the  more 
radical  the  action  or  the  more  desperate  the  wrong 
the  greater  the  necessity  for  making  no  error  in  the 
action  taken.  Nothing  could  be  more  damaging  to 
the  cause  of  women  if  there  be  a  woman's  cause,  which 
is  not  also  the  man's  cause,  than  that  serious  errors 
should  be  made  in  the  form  of  supposititious  relief 
adopted.  In  this  as  in  all  things  haste  is  likely  to 
make  waste  and  if  it  be  alleged  that  the  troubles  are 
ages  old,  let  us  at  least  admit  that  even  this  civilization 
has  advanced  and  women  are  in  a  vastly  better  position 
before  the  law  and  in  the  larger  activities  of  mankind 
than  they  have  ever  been,  and  that  most  of  these  ad- 
vances have  been  made  chiefly  through  the  initiative 
and  moral  growth  of  the  race,  entirely  irrespective  of 
the  agitations  of  women  as  such. 


178    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Nothing  in  the  present  discussion  is  to  be  inter- 
preted as  being  in  the  slightest  degree  opposed  to  the 
largest  and  widest  participation  of  women  in  every 
activity  of  human  life.  As  a  mere  matter  of  history, 
such  opposition  would  be  foolish  and  futile,  because 
the  natural  law  which  places  at  the  head  of  things 
those  most  capable  and  most  able  to  perform  certain 
functions  is  the  most  widely  operative  of  all  natural 
laws.  Hindered  here  and  there,  or  for  the  moment 
held  up  by  the  recessions  of  public  opinion  or  civili- 
zation, it  nevertheless  remains  true  that  in  the  long 
run  the  functions  of  society  have  been  administered 
by  those  most  capable  of  exercising  them.  Power  to 
do  has  always  meant  the  chance  to  do,  and  the  doing 
itself.  The  exceptions  to  this  law  have  been  too  few 
and  too  trivial  for  notice.  Hence  no  age  of  the  world 
has  been  without  women  exercising  influence,  author- 
ity and  power,  vastly  greater  than  that  of  the  average 
man.  Women  rulers  are  as  old  as  the  history  of  the 
world.  Dominating  minds,  cased  in  female  frames, 
operate  in  exactly  the  same  way  and  broadly  speaking 
with  the  same  results  that  dominating  minds  operate 
in  the  masculine  frame.  It  is  not  a  question  of  abil- 
ity. It  never  has  been  a  question  of  ability.  It  has 
always  been  a  question  of  choice  of  function  and  when 
a  particular  woman  or  group  of  women  have  chosen 
to  perform  some  function  other  than  that  which  the 
majority  of  the  sex  have  chosen,  and  have  been  able 
to  show  ability  and  power  superior  to  that  of  the  com- 
peting man  or  men,  there  has  never  been  the  slightest 
doubt  as  to  the  result.     It  may  not  always  have  been 


Feminism  179 

in  the  usual  or  conventional  form.  But  potentially 
there  has  never  been  a  moment  in  the  known  history 
of  the  world  when  superior  power  did  not  govern  and 
the  power  to  do  carry  with  it  the  chance  to  do,  and 
usually  the  doing  itself.  This  law  has  had  no  need 
of  modification  nor  of  suffrage  privileges.  It  has 
been  the  natural  law  which  has  governed  the  world. 

But  because  one  has  no  feeling  of  opposition  to  the 
liberation,  illumination  or  enfranchisement  or  what- 
ever else  you  choose  to  call  it,  of  women,  does  not 
mean  what  is  commonly  called  feminism.  A  man 
may  believe  in  roast  pig,  without  burning  down  a 
house  to  roast  the  pig.  The  modern  feminist  doc- 
trine carried  out  cannot  mean  much  else  than  burning 
down  the  house  and  for  this  reason  it  may  be  assumed 
with  reasonable  safety  that  feminism  is  merely  a 
sporadic  form  of  hysteria  or  neuroticism,  which  will 
presently  disappear  entirely  or  assume  the  form  in 
which  it  can  be  considered  along  with  the  general  up- 
ward movement  of  society.  As  it  stands  at  present, 
it  is  part  of  the  prevailing  social  rage,  which  is  fraught 
with  danger  and  disaster  to  multitudes  of  human  be- 
ings, who  while  not  numerous  enough  to  destroy  the 
steady  movement  of  the  race,  are  yet  large  enough  in 
numbers  to  spread  great  unhappiness  and  misery 
abroad  in  the  world.  And  opposition  to  the  feminist 
movement  is  not  only  to  be  desired  because  of  many 
of  the  doctrines  themselves,  but  even  more  for  the 
safety  of  the  woman's  cause  itself.  It  is  from  this 
angle  that  we  seek  to  approach  the  question.  There 
is  probably  not  a  single  problem  that  so  sorely  needs 


i8o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

to  be  saved  from  its  foolish  advocates  as  the  cause  of 
women.  The  hopes  and  welfare  of  the  thousands  of 
wage  earning  women,  the  care  and  future  of  the  thou- 
sands of  mothers  and  dependent  children,  the  budding 
aspirations  of  the  great  host  of  educated  young  women 
coming  forth  from  school  and  college  never  demanded 
the  protection  and  instruction  of  impartial  thinkers 
as  to-day  to  preserve  for  them  that  which  civilization 
has  already  secured  for  them,  and  to  continue  the  up- 
ward movement  which  has  thus  far  characterized  the 
march  of  man.  In  this  as  in  the  other  great  social 
aspirations  of  our  time  our  greatest  danger  is  rage, 
rage  for  immediate  action,  rage  for  novelty  and  fresh 
social  alignment,  rage  for  satisfaction  in  newly  awak- 
ened emotions  and  aspirations,  rage  for  participancy 
in  activities  without  either  knowledge,  aptitude  or 
experience  of  any  kind,  and  above  all  rage  for  throw- 
ing off  the  sublimest  fellowship,  by  which  the  world 
lives  and  in  which  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being, 
the  marriage  bond. 

II 

The  participation  of  women  in  any  function  of  hu- 
man society  can  in  no  manner  fundamentally  endanger 
it.  Let  that  be  set  down  as  fundamental  to  any  con- 
sideration of  the  subject.  Those  persons  who  see  in 
the  mere  activity  of  women  in  certain  social,  indus- 
trial or  political  movements  the  overthrow  of  rational 
society  may  be  dismissed  at  once  as  utterly  outside  the 
bounds  of  serious  thought.  As  already  stated,  there 
never  has  been  a  human  society  which  has  affected 


Feminism  181 

an)^hing  in  which  women  have  not  been  potentially 
present  and  often  potentially  dominant.  It  is  the 
sheerest  ignorance  to  suppose  that  because  this  pres- 
ence and  participation  did  not  take  on  certain  ex- 
pressed forms  or  utter  itself  by  means  of  accepted 
channels,  it  was  not  actively  present  and  exercising  its 
due  and  worthy  influence  upon  the  relations  of  man- 
kind. This  has  been  true  even  of  such  activities  as 
those  of  war,  in  which  women  as  a  whole  never  have 
taken  an  active  part.  And  because  women  have  al- 
ways been  present,  and  have  always  been  potentially 
active  and  often  dominant,  to  suppose  that  the  mere 
outward  assumption  of  powers,  which  they  have  al- 
ways exercised  and  the  assumption  of  responsibilities, 
visibly,  which  they  have  always  borne  more  or  less 
invisibly,  will  shake  the  foundations  of  society  is  pure 
superstition.  Nothing  of  the  sort  will  happen.  Hu- 
manity being  what  it  is  and  consisting  of  both  men 
and  women,  must  divide  both  the  honors  and  the 
shortcomings  of  civilization  between  men  and  women. 
If  our  present  society  has  anything  in  it  worthy  and 
of  good  report,  women  are  as  much  potentially  re- 
sponsible for  it  as  men.  If  it  has  shame  and  short- 
comings, women  are  equally  responsible,  with  men,  for 
these  also.  To  suppose  that  these  two  branches  of 
humanity,  being  responsible  for  the  existence  and  con- 
tinuance of  the  race,  have  been  so  far  apart,  and  so 
utterly  distinct  in  the  common  movement  of  mankind, 
as  represented  in  the  growth  of  civilization,  that  their 
responsibilities  and  common  interest  in  all  that  this 
civilization  represents  are  fundamentally  different  in- 


i82    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

dicates  a  type  of  thinking  which  is  worth  no  serious 
man's  respect.  It  is  this  assumption  which  makes 
the  feminist  movement  not  only  intellectually  con- 
temptible but  humanly  impossible. 

No  one  need  oppose  feminism  because  it  threatens 
these  things  which  we  have  held  dear,  simply  because 
it  seems  to  promise  a  larger  participation  of  women 
in  the  affairs  of  humanity.  But  this  is  not  the  ques- 
tion. If  civilization  has  been  predominantly  mas- 
culine, a  proposition  which  is  open  to  very  serious 
question,  all  that  need  be  said  about  it  is  that  it  has 
been  with  the  connivance  and  consent  of  both  branches 
of  our  common  humanity.  It  may  well  be  alleged 
that  one  branch  has  not  been  cognizant  of  all  its  possi- 
bilities, but  this  is  not  specially  significant,  because 
many  portions  of  masculine  humanity  have  also  not 
been  conscious  of  their  possibilities,  and  are  slowly 
emerging  into  a  larger  consciousness  of  themselves. 
If  it  be  contended  that  women  have  been  forcibly  held 
back  from  their  rights,  it  may  also  be  stated  that  very 
considerable  groups  of  men  have  also  been  thus  held 
back  and  the  emergence  of  one  group  is  not  essentially 
different  in  kind  from  the  emergence  of  the  other 
group.  The  talk  of  masculine  conspiracy  for  dom- 
ination is  simply  too  laughable  for  consideration  by 
persons  who  know  the  history  of  the  world,  as  it  is 
written  not  in  books  but  in  life  and  human  relations. 
A  "  masculine  conspiracy,"  supposing  such  a  thing 
even  a  tacit  conspiracy,  might  last  about  a  minute  but 
hardly  longer.  The  thing  is  too  absurd.  When 
therefore  we  are  urged  to  assist  at  the  emergence  of 


Feminism  183 

women  and  their  wider  participation  in  the  affairs  of 
humanity,  let  us  not  be  afraid.  All  that  this  can  pos- 
sibly mean  is  that  women  will  assume  openly  respon- 
sibility for  things  which  they  have  been  potentially 
responsible  for  ever  since  the  world  began.  Indeed 
it  is  high  time  that  such  positive  assumption  of  respon- 
sibility should  come.  The  moral  development  of  the 
race,  men  as  well  as  women,  demands  that  women 
should  assume  responsibility  for  matters  which  for  too 
long  have  been  assumed  to  exist  by  the  exclusive  fiat 
and  practise  of  men.  Indeed  the  working  out  of  the 
problem  of  the  social  evil  can  only  be  secured  by  this 
means.  Until  now  the  underlying  assumption  of  this 
great  and  crying  iniquity  has  been  that  men  are  re- 
sponsible for  it  and  almost  solely  responsible  for  it. 
Almost  all  legislation  has  been  with  this  as  its  under- 
lying assumption.  Courts  and  juries  take  to  it  nat- 
urally and  almost  necessarily  and  by  this  make  the 
monstrous  additional  assumption  that  the  lust  of  the 
human  race  is  almost  exclusively  masculine.  This 
arbitrary  division  of  humanity  into  a  chaste  group, 
called  women,  and  a  lustful,  licentious  group,  called 
men,  is  the  most  monstrous  and  scandalous  falsehood 
that  ever  received  acceptance  in  the  practical  workings 
of  civilized  life.  In  fact,  all  men  and  women  of  ma- 
ture years  have  always  known  and  know  now  that 
this  is  nt)t  the  case.  But  nothing  has  been  said  of 
the  genuine  and  real  responsibility  in  this  matter,  and 
it  is  high  time  that  the  burden  of  responsibility  were 
assumed  by  all  who  have  a  share  in  it.  This  can 
only  be  for  the  advancement  of  humanity  on  the  moral 


184    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

side,  and  with  it  can  come  only  good,  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  error  of  this  kind  makes  for  moral  improve- 
ment. 

In  similar  way  it  is  high  time  that  with  our  educa- 
tional program  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  women, 
they  should  assume  responsibility  for  its  results,  its 
failures,  as  well  as  its  successes.  The  vast  majority 
of  our  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools  are  women. 
If  it  be  claimed  that  the  successes  of  our  lower  educa- 
tion have  been  due  to  this  fact,  and  there  seems  to  be 
no  doubt  on  this  score,  then  it  is  also  necessary  for 
the  proper  understanding  of  our  educational  prob- 
lems that  these  same  women  should  assume  their  part 
of  the  burden  for  the  notorious  moral  defects  and 
failures  of  the  system.  Participation  here  is  to  be 
welcomed  and  more  than  welcomed.  It  is  to  be  sought 
in  the  effort  to  find  out  just  who,  or  what,  is  at  fault, 
that  with  our  gigantic  appropriations  for  popular  edu- 
cation and  the  vast  extension  of  the  resources  and 
instrumentalities  for  popular  enlightenment,  the  moral 
problems  of  the  nation  have  remained  essentially  un- 
touched. The  question  of  human  culture  and  dis- 
cipline will  thus  have  full  consideration  and  we  shall 
find  out  whether  or  not  mere  political  management  in 
the  government  of  the  schools  is  also  responsible  for 
the  moral  derelictions  which  are  making  our  common 
schools  almost  negligible  factors  in  the  moral  educa- 
tion of  the  youth  of  the  land.  No  one  who  is  familiar 
with  this  latter  problem  can  wish  for  anything  but  the 
fullest  assumption  by  women,  as  a  whole,  of  their  part 
of  this  burden. 


Feminism  185 

Nor  is  the  case  materially  different  when  we  come 
to  the  problem  of  women  in  the  industries.  The 
woman  stockholder  in  our  great  industries  is  a  large 
and  increasing  factor  and  probably  destined  to  be  a 
still  larger  factor.  It  is  highly  desirable  that  we 
should  know  whether  the  woman  stockholder  has  any 
different  conception  of  dividends  than  that  which  pre- 
vails ainong  men.  It  will  be  of  great  worth  to  civili- 
zation to  know  whether,  when  her  personal  income  is 
threatened  and  her  personal  indulgences  are  cut  off, 
she  acts  in  a  manner  fundamentally  different  on  the 
subject  of  child  labor,  minimum  wage  and  other  ques- 
tions. Indeed  nobody  at  this  moment  knows  how 
women  in  the  mass  will  take  to  the  rule  of  other 
women,  except  that  whenever  the  problem  has  been 
examined  in  the  concrete  the  evidence  seems  to  show 
that  most  women  would  rather  be  under  the  govern- 
ment of  a  man  or  men  than  under  that  of  a  woman 
or  group  of  women.  But  by  all  means  let  us  know. 
If  the  woman  capitalist  is  as  effective  and  as  pro- 
ductive as  the  man  capitalist,  and  more  humane,  more 
honorable,  more  susceptible  to  justice  and  honor  than 
the  man,  who  can  be  otherwise  than  anxious  for  the 
earliest  appearance  of  the  woman  capitalist? 

Precisely  the  same  desire  must  govern  every  ra- 
tional human  being  on  the  subject  of  government  and 
taxation.  If  it  lies  in  the  power  of  women  to  admin- 
ister justice  and  the  business  of  government  more 
wisely  than  men  can  do  these  things,  who  can  possibly 
desire  that  they  shall  be  excluded  from  them?  Let 
us  admit  that  the  predatory  interests  of  iniquity  and 


i86    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  despoilcrs  and  jackals  of  society  will  not  want  any- 
more severe  restraints  than  are  now  imposed  upon 
them.  If  women  can  place  more  severe  restraints 
and  can  enforce  them,  all  will  be  well.  Of  course, 
this  is  the  question  we  are  trying  to  solve.  But  of 
the  welcome  of  the  advance,  if  it  is  possible,  there  is 
not  the  slightest  possible  doubt,  unless  we  are  willing 
to  assume,  as  stated,  that  one-half  of  society,  namely 
that  called  men,  are  ipso  facto  morally  different  from 
the  other  half.  But  it  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  that 
society  is  longing  for  such  a  group  among  the  men, 
and  will  give  a  hardly  less  joyful  welcome  to  such  a 
group,  even  if  they  happen  to  be  women.  The  idea 
that  society  is  not  ready,  as  such,  to  bow  to  capacity 
wherever  it  finds  it,  or  that  it  will  not  bow  whether 
it  wants  to  or  not,  is  very  foolish.  But  if  women  as 
a  group  or  as  a  sex  can  do  these  things  better  than 
men  have  been  doing  them,  or  give  us  any  lift  toward 
ideal  conditions,  by  all  means  let  us  have  it.  And  if 
they  succeed  the  success  will  teach  us  many  more 
things  than  better  lessons  in  government.  And  if 
they  fail  we  shall  at  least  not  have  upon  our  con- 
sciences the  regret  that  we  might  have  had  a  superior 
civilization  if  we  had  been  willing.  But  one  need  not 
be  a  feminist  to  hold  these  views!  Merely  being  a 
rational  human  being  will  lead  to  most  of  these  views. 
This  is  not  feminism,  it  is  merely  civilization  working 
along  in  the  lines  in  which  it  has  always  worked. 

Christianity  certainly  has  no  inherent  hostility  to 
these  movements,  considered  as  a  part  of  the  program 
of  civilization.     Quite  the  contrary!     The  Greek  ob- 


Feminism  187 

jection  to  Christianity,  in  the  earliest  centuries  of  its 
existence,  was  precisely  this,  that  Christianity  was  a 
kind  of  "  feminism  "  and  to  be  opposed  on  that  ac- 
count. The  machinery  of  Christendom  is  feminist 
and  has  always  been.  The  church  is  what  the  women 
have  made  it.  Religion  in  Christendom  is  now  and 
has  almost  always  been  dominated,  at  least  upheld,  by 
women.  Christianity  has  within  it  nothing  that  looks 
askance  at  the  woman  capitalist,  the  woman  voter,  the 
woman  wage-earner  or  the  woman  educator,  artist  or 
scientist.  By  all  means  let  us  have  the  widest  par- 
ticipation of  women  in  everything  that  has  to  do  with 
civilization,  determining  all  such  participations  upon 
exactly  the  same  lines  upon  which  we  determine  them 
for  men,  their  rationality,  their  wisdom,  their  ex- 
pediency in  time  and  circumstances,  and  their  ultimate 
result.  Applying  the  collective  good  sense  and  judg- 
ment of  enlightened  human  beings,  by  all  means  let 
us  have  all  of  humanity  taking  a  part  in  the  business 
which  belongs  to  all.  But  this  is  not  feminism !  This 
is  the  human  mind  working  at  its  own  growth  and 
expansion  and  endeavoring  to  subdue  the  earth  and 
make  it  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Ill 

But  all  this  is  completely  overshadowed  when  we 
come  to  consider  the  erotic  naturalism  which  is  offered 
for  the  social  institution  called  marriage.  Here  we 
have  not  merely  the  overturn  of  a  social  foundation, 
which  society  has  laboriously,  through  many  experi- 


i88    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ments  evolved,  built  up,  hedged  about  and  endeavored 
to  protect  and  purify,  but  to  reversion  to  the  savage 
regime  of  sex  lavi^lessness  and  the  subversion  of  the 
moral  rule  in  sex  relations  entirely.  This  is  the  point 
at  which  feminism  becomes  not  merely  dangerous, 
but  antagonistic  to  every  principle  by  which  permanent 
human  relations  have  become  established.  It  may  be 
admitted  that  marriage  as  we  practise  it  has  many  a 
great  defect.  It  may  be  admitted  that  we  have  not 
heard  the  last  word  even  on  durable  sex  relations,  but 
whatever  we  have  or  have  not  learned,  we  seem  to  be 
pretty  sure  in  the  belief  that  lawless  sex  relations  not 
only  make  permanent  society  impossible,  but  will  de- 
stroy the  process  of  race  evolution  through  which 
progress  is  possible.  Nor  does  it  require  any  elab- 
orate technical  disquisition  to  establish  this  fact. 
Men  and  women  have  never  had  any  very  large 
knowledge  of  the  creative  processes  which  have  gov- 
erned the  higher  development  of  the  human  species. 
They  have  not  such  knowledge  now.  And  those  who 
have  most  of  it,  or  at  least  that  portion  of  it  which 
seems  to  be  established  as  knowledge,  do  not  show 
that  the  knowledge  as  such  has  a  very  powerful  in- 
fluence in  their  own  effectiveness  as  producers  of  a 
hardy,  virile  and  sound  human  stock.  But  what  the 
humblest  man  with  a  family  knows  is  that  such  a  fam- 
ily established  in  good  faith,  adhered  to  in  good  faith, 
with  its  burdens  mutually  borne  and  its  trials  fairly 
distributed,  and  its  labors  jointly  sustained,  makes  for 
the  most  satisfactory  type  of  human  (existence  known. 
Perhaps  it  may  not  be  called  marriage  in  the  Anglo- 


Feminism  189 

Saxon  sense  but  if  it  be  the  form  of  domesticity  and 
fellowship  which  we  commonly  understand  by  the 
permanent  family  relation,  having  as  its  primary  aim 
the  rearing"  of  children  and  the  faithful  assumption 
of  the  duties  attendant  on  this  aim,  the  collective  ex- 
perience of  the  race  testifies  that  it  makes  for  growth 
and  happiness  of  the  race  and  for  its  progress  morally, 
physically  and  spiritually.  There  is  no  need  to  com- 
plicate the  discussion  with  a  mass  of  scientific  data. 
There  is  no  need  to  enter  into  long  examinations  of 
the  physical  characteristics  of  humanity,  interesting 
and  valuable  as  all  these  things  may  be.  The  common 
consciousness  on  the  subject  is  sufficient  and  the  ef- 
forts of  civilization  to  hedge  about  and  protect  this 
relation,  always  by  the  way,  through  the  extension  of 
the  mutual  rights  and  duties  of  the  parties  thus  re- 
lated, are  the  indisputable  evidence  that  what  has  thus 
been  achieved,  through  long  experience  and  patience 
in  well  doing,  yes,  even  by  hardship  and  inequality, 
has  been  the  sublimest  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race.  To  substitute  for  this  relation  the  wild 
orgy  of  erotic  naturalism  is  to  throw  out  of  the  win- 
dow the  costliest  possessions  of  the  human  heart  and 
mind.     That  is  what  feminism  proposes  to  do. 

Nor  is  this  conclusion  altered  by  the  recital  of  the 
sexual  irregularities  which  form  so  large  a  problem 
of  civilization  at  the  present  moment.  Whatever 
causes  these,  it  is  very  certain  that  they  are  not  caused 
by  one  fraction  of  humanity  without  the  cooperation 
and  assistance  of  the  other.  And  so  long  as  we  are 
in  a  world  where  there  is  room  for  infinite  develop- 


190    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ment,  and  also  one  in  which  there  is  vast  and  universal 
frailty,  we  may  well  be  pardoned  for  refusing  to 
leave  the  beaten  path  of  experience,  even  when  it  is 
not  ideally  satisfactory,  for  a  savage  substitute  which 
eventuates  nowhere  and  destroys  the  possibility  for 
harmonious  solution  of  the  main  issue.  Marriage 
even  under  the  least  favorable  conditions  offers  more 
to  its  subjects  of  happiness,  contentment  and  useful- 
ness to  self  and  to  mankind,  than  the  most  ideal 
collaboration,  on  the  theory  of  natural  selection  and 
sex  freedom  as  proposed  because  the  latter  when  suc- 
cessful will  be  so  like  ideal  marriage  in  its  domestic 
form  and  expression  that  it  will  simply  be  marriage 
without  its  name  and  sanctions.  And  to  claim  that 
this  result  is  secured  merely  by  removing  the  normal 
restraints  and  inducements  to  fidelity  and  loyalty  in 
the  interest  of  a  supposititious  freedom  is  to  suppose 
nonsense,  because  there  is  no  parallel  to  such  a  doc- 
trine in  any  other  department  of  human  action  and 
cooperation.  What  we  have  here  is  merely  another 
form  of  social  rage,  the  regularly  recurring  resistance 
of  the  lawless  elements  of  society  to  the  gradually  ex- 
panding law  of  social  intercourse,  which  for  security 
always  extracts  a  certain  measure  from  the  area  of 
private  initiative.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  where  the 
conditions  approximate  to  satisfactory  sex  relations, 
not  only  is  there  little  or  no  consciousness  of  restric- 
tion, but  on  the  contrary  an  extension  of  the  power 
of  life  and  usefulness,  because  of  the  most  powerful 
and  significant  form. of  human  cooperation  known. 
Not  only  has  marriage  as  we  know  it  been  thus 


Feminism  191 

powerful  as  the  rational  basis  of  society,  but  it  has 
taught  the  race  all  that  it  now  knows  of  domesticity 
and  the  possibilities  of  permanent  residence,  with  all 
that  this  has  meant,  for  the  development  of  civilized 
life.  Thus  men  have  been  brought  to  improve  their 
surroundings  because  they  intended  to  abide  in  them. 
Thus  have  they  been  led  to  study  and  analyze  human 
qualities,  because  they  planned  to  live  with  them  and 
adjust  themselves  to  them.  Thus  has  the  moral 
status  of  the  race  been  hfted,  because  it  has  taught 
patience,  self-restraint  and  reciprocal  rights  and 
duties.  Thus  has  the  savage  in  man  been  tamed  and 
he  has  become  fit  for  his  work  out  of  the  home  as  well 
as  in  it.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  abstruse  science. 
It  is  the  common  experience  of  common  men  who 
have  simply  sought  to  do  their  duty  in  an  ordinary 
way.  It  is  not  merely  this  institution  which  erotic 
naturalism  threatens,  but  through  it  threatens  almost 
everything  else  because  it  takes  away  from  humanity 
the  most  powerful  single  instrument  by  which  its 
moral  growth  and  personal  increase  of  power  and  use- 
fulness has  been  developed.  And  if  protest  be  lodged 
against  the  permanence  of  such  an  arrangement, 
against  the  will  and  desire  of  the  contracting  parties, 
let  the  whole  world  bear  witness  that  when  the  limit 
of  endurance  has  been  reached  and  possible  domestic- 
ity has  been  destroyed  as  a  goal  of  attainment,  no 
arrangement  within  or  without  the  law  has  been  able 
to  hold  the  contracting  parties  together.  This  is  why 
such  a  bond,  without  the  possibility  of  release,  is  an 
unwarrantable  tyranny.     But  the  same  facts  which 


192    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

make  it  an  unwarrantable  tyranny  to  hold  men  and 
women  in  so  dose  and  so  significant  a  relation,  against 
their  will  and  desire,  make  it  also  the  most  potent 
power  for  the  upbuilding  of  mankind  the  security  of 
life,  health  and  the  proper  and  successful  rearing  of 
offspring  and  the  natural  fulfilment  of  the  hopes  and 
expectations  which  such  a  union  raises.  The  mere 
suggestion  of  reducing  this  form  of  human  alliance 
to  the  capricious  status  of  a  fly-by-night  cohabitation, 
called  natural  union,  should  awaken  the  fiercest  re- 
sentment in  all  well  meaning  men  and  women,  not 
because  the  occasional  tyrant  finds  it  possible  to  use 
marriage  as  a  tool  of  oppression,  but  because  the 
rights,  the  duties,  the  hopes,  the  aspirations  of  man- 
kind, receive  through  such  action  a  blow  from  which 
they  cannot  possibly  recover.  It  is  not  a  question 
whether  ideal  marriage  exists.  It  is  a  question 
whether  what  mankind  has  discovered  by  so  slow  a 
process,  by  patience,  by  love,  by  self  restraint,  by  vi- 
carious fortitude,  shall  at  once  be  thrown  to  the  winds 
in  the  interest  of  a  fictitious  freedom. 

The  marriage  relation  with  all  its  admitted  defects 
has  probably  been  the  greatest  teacher  of  the  human 
race.  It  has  fitly  become  the  symbol  of  the  ultimate 
hope  of  humanity,  and  when  we  say  "  human  family," 
we  mean  just  what  we  know  the  ideal  family  to  be, 
out  of  the  actual  experience  of  the  race.  It  is  this 
which  makes  the  feministic  propaganda  so  ruthless  and 
so  damaging  to  the  hopes  of  men  and  socially  so  dis- 
figurative  and  menacing.  Let  once  the  essential  in- 
tegrity of  the  family  relation  be  destroyed,  and  ninety 


Feminism  193 

per  cent,  of  the  incentives  by  which  men  have  striven 
to  build  up  society  and  through  which  they  have  struck 
at  social  wrongs  will  disappear.  We  shall  doubtless 
come  some  time  to  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
no  child  is  a  child  of  shame  and  that  the  frightful  and 
disastrous  penalties  which  we  visit  upon  innocent  little 
children  are  a  scandal  in  Christendom;  but  the  road 
to  deliverance  does  not  lie  in  the  direction  of  lessen- 
ing the  individual  and  personal  responsibilities  through 
the  increasing  responsibility  of  the  state  for  childhood, 
but  through  the  strengthening  of  the  marriage  bond, 
in  such  a  manner  and  through  such  an  enlarged  serise 
of  duty  as  will  reduce  the  number  of  such  innocents, 
now  ruthlessly  slaughtered  for  no  offense  of  their 
own,  by  the  sanctification,  not  the  socializing,  of  sex 
relations.  The  feminist  rage,  like  the  general  social 
rage,  is  once  more  the  social  mass,  acting  without 
judgment  and  without  reason  and  playing  into  the 
hands  of  the  predatory  interests  who  never  flourish 
as  when  the  plain  path  of  sobriety  is  exchanged  for 
the  wild  and  multifarious  by-paths  of  personal  self- 
indulgence  and  casting  off  of  the  natural  and  neces- 
sary restraints  by  which  genuine  progress  is  always 
secured. 

IV 

The  feministic  rage  appears  in  its  worst  light,  how- 
ever, when  we  come  to  think  of  its  results  as  applied 
to  the  childhood  of  the  country.  The  problem  of  the 
child  in  America  has  come  to  be  so  real  a  problem  and 
so  fraught  with  danger  to  every  human  interest,  that 


194    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

whatever  affects  it,  affects  fundamentally  every  rela- 
tion of  life  public  and  private.  Public  education  hav- 
ing proven  morally  so  very  defective,  that  it  may  well 
be  called  a  near-failure,  the  industrial  development 
having  expanded  in  so  anarchic  a  manner  that  no  fixed 
principles  prevail  in  the  land  as  applied  to  the  humani- 
tarian side  of  industrial  growth,  the  great  maw  of 
commercialism  has  opened  its  jaws  and  is  swallowing 
still,  in  spite  of  laws  most  of  them  foolishly  conceived 
and  imperfectly  executed,  thousands  of  children  and 
destroying  them  forever,  as  helpful  assets,  in  the  fu- 
ture development  of  the  nation,  because  crippling  their 
thinking  power  and  limiting  their  industrial  capacity 
and  possibilities.  Hitherto  we  have  looked  to  the 
home  and  the  natural  affections  as  providing  at  least 
one  impregnable  barrier  against  these  assaults.  The 
stability  of  the  home,  the  natural  love  of  parents  for 
children,  especially  the  supposed  devotion  of  the 
mother  for  her  offspring,  have  been'  for  us  the  one 
enduring  hope  of  respite  till  the  public  conscience  and 
the  public  intelligence  could  be  brought  to  see  a  more 
excellent  way.  But  this  stronghold  of  civilization 
now  is  in  a  fair  way  to  lose  if  the  feminists  have  their 
way.  Step  by  step  the  home  is  being  denuded  of  its 
responsibilities.  The  public  school  instead  of  having 
become,  as  was  intended,  the  ally  of  the  home,  has 
taken  its  place  in  the  matter  of  intellectual  responsi- 
bility. Not  only  the  ignorant  and  the  incapable  now 
blindly  give  over  their  children  to  the  public  educa- 
tional machine,  taking  what  its  offers,  too  lazy  or  too 
incapable  to  ask  whether  the  product  is  good  or  other- 


Feminism  195 

wise,  but  the  more  intelligent  and  often  the  highly  in- 
telligent also,  have  now  assumed  this  attitude.  The 
result  is  that  the  intellectual  problem  of  the  nation  is 
dumped  into  the  public  school  hopper  and  all  further 
responsibility  dismissed.  But  this  is  not  all  nor  even 
the  w.orst.  With  this  dismissal  of  intellectual  re- 
sponsibility has  come  substantially  the  more  disastrous 
dismissal  of  moral  responsibihty  and  there  is  hardly 
a  high  school  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  which 
does  not  present  moral  questions  which  should  shock 
the  community  in  which  it  exists  into  throes  of  anx- 
iety, as  to  the  moral  future  of  its  pupils.  For  a  long 
time  these  facts  were  concealed  or  ignored.  Nobody 
likes  to  appear  disloyal  to  the  public  schools,  and  its 
great  achievements,  and  they  are  undeniably  great, 
make  most  of  us  moral  cowards  when  it  comes  to 
dealing  with  their  shortcomings,  especially  their  moral 
shortcomings.  Before  many  persons  looms  the  spec- 
ter of  the  resumption  of  religious  teaching  and  with 
this  state  church  and  state  religion  or  possibly  foreign 
religious  dominion  and  control,  the  ultimate  division 
of  public  school  funds,  with  the  vast  increase  of  de- 
nominational and  parochial  schools,  and  the  final  de- 
struction of  our  public  school  system,  along  the  great 
lines  along  which  it  has  been  developing,  of  freedom 
from  sectarian  or  religious  control.  It  is  the  pre- 
vailing superstition  among  thousands  of  our  people 
that  by  blinking  these  great  defects,  we  can  avoid  these 
final  issues.  But  no  power  on  earth  can  prevent  the 
moral  elements  of  the  community,  whether  they  are 
Protestant,  Roman  Catholic,  or  Jewish,  from  finally 


196    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

demanding  and  finally  getting  some  sort  of  altera- 
tions which  will  provide  for  direct  moral  instruction 
unless  we  frankly  face  the  facts  and  secure  the  changes 
ourselves  as  a  whole  people.  Unless  the  people  make 
their  public  schools  more  effective  morally  and  bring 
out  of  the  moral  confusion  something  like  orderly  di- 
rect and  effective  instruction  and  discipline  in  morals, 
the  unbelievers  in  our  public  system  of  education,  both 
of  the  kind  who  are  its  natural  antagonists  and  those 
who  will  feel  the  need  for  change,  will  combine  to 
bring  about  the  changes  indicated.  Of  all  the  ene- 
mies of  the  public  schools,  the  feminist  agitators  are 
the  worst  and  most  dangerous.  It  is  they  who  create 
the  reactionary  public  opinion  which  will  proceed  to 
take  the  backward  steps  for  religious  and  ecclesias- 
tical control  if  these  steps  are  ever  taken.  By  regu- 
larly progressive  steps  they  will  drive  the  more  capable 
children  out  of  the  public  into  private  schools,  and 
the  more  careful  parents  to  take  their  children  out  of 
the  common  group  where  they  naturally  would  be  and 
should  be,  and  leave  only  the  least  capable  and  those 
who  will  fall  most  naturally  into  the  line  of  approach 
and  control  set  forth.  In  some  communities  this  is 
already  happening,  where  quasi-ecclesiastical  control 
is  in  practical  operation  under  the  forms  of  public  con- 
trol and  under  public  taxation.  The  thinly  disguised 
efforts  to  put  into  clerical  supervision  and  direction 
the  important  officers  of  public  education  can  be  seen 
in  almost  any  industrial  center  in  New  England  and 
ultramontane  efforts  in  this  direction  are  in  evidence 
on  every  hand.     But  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.    No 


Feminism  197 

seriously  religious  man,  be  he  Protestant  or  Roman 
Catholic,  can  view  with  equanimity  the  moral  dissolu- 
tion of  public  education  and  the  increasing  moral  dis- 
order of  what  should  be  the  strongest  bulwark  of 
American  civilization.  And  if  the  people  as  a  whole 
are  too  indolent  and  themselves  morally  incapable  of 
taking  hold  of  these  questions,  it  is  hardly  to  be  won- 
dered that  the  natural  law  of  the  rule  of  the  most 
capable  should  manifest  itself  here,  as  elsewhere.  It 
is  not  in  the  first  instance  a  question  of  sectarianism 
at  all.  It  is  in  the  first  instance  a  matter  of  throwing 
overboard  responsibilities  which  belong,  by  every  law 
of  nature  and  of  God,  to  parents  with  respect  to  their 
offspring. 

But  at  this  critical  juncture  come  along  the  femin- 
ists with  the  destructive  ideas  of  the  function  of 
women.  With  these  ideas  come  the  hazy  ideas  or 
want  of  ideas  about  the  control,  government  and  re- 
sponsibility for  children.  Some  frankly  avow  the 
state  responsibility  for  the  generation,  rearing  and  ed- 
ucation of  children  and  the  dissolution  of  the  family. 
With  these  we  can  reckon  for  this  is  a  thoroughly 
mtelligible  proposition.  But  with  the  mass  who  have 
neither  the  courage  to  avow  that  they  stand  for  abso- 
lute promiscuity  of  sex  relation  and  no  responsibility 
for  children  nor  the  readiness  to  take  up  and  bear 
with  courage  and  fortitude  the  duties  which  every  im- 
perfect civilization  must  put  upon  the  best  parents, 
as  a  part  of  the  price  of  progress  for  the  race,  all  that 
we  get  is  the  gradual  loosening  from  duty  and  the 
hideous  results  of  brutality,  licentiousness  and  world 


198    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

filled  with  children  for  whom  nobody,  but  a  thing 
called  "  state,"  is  responsible.  That  is  what  femin- 
ism followed  out  to  its  logical  result  amounts  to,  what- 
ever be  alleged  and  whatever  claims  are  put  forward. 
Strip  all  the  high  sounding  nonsense  about  "  woman's 
mission "  and  "  woman's  responsibility "  and 
'*  woman's  self-expression  "  and  the  like  of  their  tin- 
sel and  what  they  mean  in  practise  is  promiscuity  and 
homeless  and  parentless  children  —  future  citizens  to 
whom  father  and  mother  are  terms  without  meaning 
and  who  by  that  very  fact  are  automatically  derailed 
from  the  great  highway  of  human  progress,  which 
those  terms  connote.  The  divorce  evil  is  bad  enough 
and  with  the  troubles  incident  to  the  adjustments  of 
the  marriage  relation  we  have  a  problem  large  enough 
for  the  best  heart  and  conscience  of  the  nation.  But 
with  the  entire  fabric  of  stable  marriage  dissolved,  and 
with  the  relations  of  men  and  women  and  the  re- 
sponsibility for  children  reduced  to  the  status  of  ca- 
price, what  possible  statement  can  describe  the  future 
of  the  race  and  the  nation  ? 


Once  more  scanning  the  entire  horizon  for  relief 
from  this  impending  disaster,  we  see  the  futility  of 
every  remedy  proposed,  except  that  of  religion  and 
Christianity  in  particular.  To  the  enlightened  mind 
what  we  have  here  is  another  of  those  moral  aber- 
rations which  call  not  for  statutes,  not  for  repressions, 
not  for  tidal  waves  of  hysterical  revival,  but  for  teach- 


Feminism  199 

ing,  sane,  sincere  and  thorough-going.  The  Christian 
church  for  the  most  part  has  been  silent  upon  the 
whole  subject  of  sex.  Its  pulpits  have  talked  vaguely 
about  certain  forms  of  sex  evil,  but  for  direct,  clear, 
unequivocal  teaching  we  look  in  vain.  The  reason 
is  partly  moral  and  partly  economic.  But  whatever 
the  reason  is,  the  vast  mass  of  our  young  people  never 
have  received  and  under  the  present  disposition  never 
will  receive  the  forcible  and  vigorous  indoctrination 
into  the  responsibilities  of  manhood  and  womanhood, 
on  the  side  of  their  sex  responsibilities  and  duties, 
which  is  one  of  the  imperative  needs  of  the  nation. 
Whether  this  instruction  should  be  given  in  the  public 
schools  may  well  be  a  question.  But  that  it  should 
be  given  somewhere  by  somebody  is  unquestionable. 
The  policy  of  silence  has  not  only  failed,  but  has  let 
loose  upon  us  the  flood  of  libertinism  and  license, 
now  organized  and  given  intellectual  sanction  under 
the  alluring  program  of  feminism.  The  one  instru- 
ment which  can  and  which  ought  to  perform  this  serv- 
ice for  civilization  is  the  Christian  church.  Chris- 
tianity has  the  message  and  has  it  in  a  form  calculated 
to  bring  the  truth  home  to  the  heart,  the  mind  and 
the  conscience.  Christianity  has  the  historic  interest 
in  humanity  and  the  historical  achievements  for  hu- 
manity behind  it,  which  entitles  it  to  speak  with  de- 
cision, force  and  authority.  That  the  Christian 
church  does  not  so  speak  is  the  denial  by  the  church 
of  its  historic  message  and  once  more  proves  that 
Christianity  may  have  to  leave  the  church  to  get  itself 
uttered  and  integrated  into  the  life  of  mankind. 


200    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  on  this  particular  point 
Christianity  should  have  the  clearest  and  most  de- 
cisive moral  message  of  all,  for  its  inheritance  from 
the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  is  here  so  rich  and  the 
dicta  so  obviously  based  upon  human  experience  and 
wisdom  that  it  would  seem  that  upon  this  point 
Christianity  would  never  be  at  fault.  Upon  the 
beauties  of  the  Christian  household  it  has  never  failed 
to  dwell  with  emphasis  and  pride.  But  the  enemies 
of  that  household  and  the  foes  which  have  tended  to 
break  it  down  have  latterly  had  no  reason  to  fear 
Christian  teaching  in  actual  practice.  The  doctrines 
are  there,  but  the  emphasis  is  wanting  and  the  pulpit 
has  been  silent  where  it  should  have  thundered  forth 
the  inevitableness  of  the  destruction  which  must  fol- 
low where  those  teachings  are  nullified  or  ignored. 
Christianity  which  is  by  its  nature  a  controversy,  a 
war  with  the  sin  and  misery  of  the  world,  has  had 
only  a  passive  quarrel  with  the  home  breakers  of  the 
world !  Feminine  itself  to  so  large  a  degree  in  its  com- 
position, it  has  had  nothing  to  say  and  only  passive 
resistance  to  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  profound- 
est  problem  of  humanity!  It  has  suffered  its  youth 
to  g^ow  to  maturity  without  positive  instruction  in 
those  duties,  which  have  most  to  do  with  the  happi- 
ness and  peace  of  men.  It  has  permitted  its  women 
to  become  filled  with  ideas  which  can  have  for  their 
logical  end  only  the  dissolution  of  just  and  honorable 
moral  relations  between  men  and  women.  It  has  suf- 
fered men  to  remain  within  its  borders,  untouched  by 
the  deeper  responsibilities   which   fatherhood  brings 


Feminism  201 

and  split  the  home  itself  into  numberless  fragments 
by  innumerable  religious  associations  of  one  kind  and 
another,  which  differentiated  the  religious  longings  of 
the  various  types  to  such  a  refinement,  till  the  religious 
unity  of  the  home  was  destroyed  and  its  moral  soli- 
darity made  impossible! 

No  amount  of  casuistry  can  relieve  the  Christian 
church  from  its  awful  responsibility  in  this  matter. 
And  this  responsibility  is  not  confined  either  to  faults 
of  a  merely  negative  character.  It  is  not  only  that 
the  church  has  not  uttered  a  positive  note,  and  given 
no  decisive  and  clear  instruction.  It  has  connived  at 
the  evil  by  failing  to  exercise  the  disciplinary  vigilance 
upon  its  own  membership  and  it  is  not  an  unheard  of 
experience,  that  men  of  known  immorality  have  been 
prominent  in  its  councils  and  sat  in  the  high  places  of 
influence  and  power.  But  where  the  moral  laxity  was 
so  great,  who  was  there  to  rise  up  and  take  the  initia- 
tive? Why  did  not  the  clergy  take  up  these  duties 
and  these  questions  and  bring  them  into  the  forefront 
of  the  popular  consciousness  of  the  religious  congre- 
gations? Why  does  it  not  do  so  now,  except  in  the 
form  of  agitations  about  "  white  slavery  "  and  other 
public  menaces  which  while  they  are  real  and  impor- 
tant, leave  the  vital  question  untouched  because  they 
fail  to  stop  the  supply  at  its  source?  While  these  lines 
are  being  written,  there  has  been  in  a  neighboring  city 
one  of  those  periodical  round-ups  which  the  nastiness 
of  the  situation  and  the  general  outcry  compelled  the 
police  authorities  to  make,  with  the  frightful  result 
that  fifteen  young  girls  under  fifteen  years  of  age  were 


202    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

found  to  be  regular  instruments  of  immorality  and 
were  as  a  result  of  capture  distributed  around  in  the 
various  state  institutions!  Significant  fruit  of  civ- 
ilization! Fifteen  children  under  fifteen,  potential 
mothers  of  a  small  army  of  criminals  of  every  sort 
and  kind,  and  all  that  we  know  to  do  with  them  is  to 
ship  them  to  institutions,  most  of  them  themselves 
under  suspicion  and  periodically,  themselves,  requiring 
cleaning  up  for  their  moral  dirtiness  and  worthless- 
ness!  But  what  strikes  the  thoughtful  man  here 
again,  is  not  what  is  to  become  of  these  children  now, 
but  how  did  it  happen  that  these  children  were  suf- 
fered to  become  what  they  now  are!  And  these  are 
but  a  small  fraction  of  many  thousands  like  them. 
When  these  cases  are  examined,  the  heartrending  fact 
is  discovered  that  not  infrequently  these  children  have 
been  members  of  Sunday  schools  of  all  denominations 
—  there  is  no  denominational  differentiation  here,  the 
Protestant,  the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Jew  are  alike 
in  the  mire  of  this  horrible  pit  —  and  have  at  least 
been  brought  into  sufficient  contact  with  our  religious 
institutions,  to  give  these  the  opportunity  of  making 
an  impression  which  should  have  at  least  prevented 
this  form  of  immorality  at  this  age.  Interesting,  too, 
was  this  particular  instance,  in  that  the  roundup  em- 
braced half  a  dozen  cities  and  towns  which  indicated 
that  the  practise  was  widely  spread  and  indicative  of 
a  general  condition.  Why  were  children  of  fifteen, 
from  half  a  dozen  cities  and  towns,  found  in  another 
city  and  a  disreputable  part  of  it,  to  be  rounded  up 
by  the  police?     To  answer  that  this  is  the  result  of 


Feminism  203 

our  social  conditions  and  to  prattle  about  the  economic 
enormities  of  the  time  as  responsible  is  sheer  non- 
sense. Where  were  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  these 
children?  That  is  the  main  question  and  its  answer 
comes  immediately  home  to  the  subject  of  this  chap- 
ter. Under  the  influence  of  the  general  loosening  of 
home  ties  and  the  general  disregard  for  home  duties, 
and  the  vast  flood  of  new  duties  of  women,  the  con- 
sequent spread  of  irresponsibility  of  a  personal  kind, 
these  people  were  simply  the  first  fruit  of  what  under 
the  feministic  program  would  become  the  general  and 
universal  rule.  This  is  not  primarily  a  matter  for 
statutes  and  laws!  It  is  primarily  a  concern  of  reli- 
gion and  every  church  in  the  land  should  feel  itself 
disgraced  when  such  occurrences  take  place  within  the 
sphere  of  its  influence.  But  it  is  likely  that  most  of 
these  young  people  never  had  the  slightest  guidance 
or  leading  on  these  subjects.  It  is  probable  that  they 
never  knew  what  authority  meant  in  the  home. 

Let  there  be  no  illusion  in  this  business;  feminism 
that  means  anything  other  than  the  natural  increase 
of  woman's  participation  in  the  affairs  of  mankind, 
preserving  her  main  and  most  important  function  in 
society  unimpaired,  as  to  purity,  effectiveness  and  sur- 
rounded with  the  most  sacred  associations  and  sanc- 
tions, means  the  downfall  of  the  home  as  the  nursery 
of  upright,  capable  citizens  upon  whom  the  welfare 
of  society  rests.  The  preservation  of  that  home  de- 
pends not  upon  laws,  but  upon  the  sound  and  sincere 
domestic  fellowship,  helped  through  hard  places  by 
religious  faith  and  trust,  because  taught  in  the  vital 


204    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

and  morally  sustaining  truths  of  Christianity.  Sub- 
tract the  Christianity  and  for  a  period  the  traditional 
moral  sactions  will  prevail,  but  the  lapse  into  savagery 
and  barbarism  will  be  as  inevitable  as  the  tides.  The 
place  to  take  this  brutalizing  theory  of  woman  by  the 
throat,  the  place  to  proclaim  its  shamelessness  and  its 
destructiveness,  is  in  the  Christian  church.  No  other 
institution  has  the  resources,  the  constituency  and  the 
authority  to  do  it  so  well. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
ISRAEL  IN  BONDAGE 


/ 


My  work  is  finished  which  I  had  to  do  as  a  minister:  You 
have  pubUcIy  rejected  me  and  my  opportunities  cease. 

How  highly  therefore  does  it  now  become  us,  to  consider  of 
that  time  when  we  must  meet  one  another  before  the  Chief 
Shepherd?  When  I  must  give  an  account  of  my  stewardship  of 
the  service  I  have  done  for,  and  the  reception  and  treatment  I 
have  had  among,  the  people  he  sent  me  to.  And  you  must  give 
an  account  of  your  conduct  toward  me,  and  the  improvement 
you  have  made  of  these  three  and  twenty  years  of  my  ministry. 
There  is  nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be  revealed,  nor  hid 
that  shall  not  be  known;  all  will  be  examined  in  the  searching, 
penetrating  light  of  God's  omniscience  and  glory,  and  by  him 
whose  eyes  are  as  a  flame  of  fire;  and  truth  and  right  shall  be 
made  plainly  to  appear,  being  stripped  of  every  veil;  and  all 
error,  falsehood,  unrighteousness  and  injury,  be  laid  open 
stripped  of  every  disguise;  every  specious  pretense,  every  cavil, 
and  all  false  reasoning  shall  vanish  in  a  moment  as  not  being 
able  to  bear  the  light  of  that  day.  .  .  .  Then  every  step  of  the 
conduct  of  each  of  us,  in  this  affair,  from  first  to  last,  and  the 
spirit  we  have  exercised  in  all,  shall  be  examined  and  manifested 
and  our  own  consciences  shall  speak  plain  and  loud  and  each 
of  us  shall  be  convinced  and  the  world  shall  know ;  and  never 
shall  there  be  any  more  mistake,  misrepresentation,  or  misap- 
prehension of  the  affair  to  eternity. 

Jonathan  Edwards, 
Farewell  Sermon  at  Northampton. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ISRAEL  IN  BONDAGE 


NO  just  consideration  of  the  condition  and  atti- 
tude of  the  clergymen  of  the  American 
churches  can  begin  without  the  recognition  of  the 
splendid  part  which  this  calling  has  had  in  the  unfold- 
ing and  organization  of  American  life.  Such  a 
recognition,  if  adequately  performed,  would  show 
that  there  has  been  hardly  a  part  of  our  varied  history 
in  which  the  minister  has  not  taken  a  creditable  stand, 
worthy  of  his  profession  and  worthy  of  the  religion 
which  it  is  his  duty  to  proclaim.  It  would  have  to 
do  with  almost  every  form  of  activity  also.  It  would 
show  that  he  has  been  active  in  the  social  and  politi- 
cal organization  of  the  nation,  has  been  a  wise  and 
helpful  adviser  and  inspirer,  and  has  nothing  to  fear 
by  comparison  with  any  other  profession  or  calling 
in  the  land.  Let  this  be  taken  for  granted.  The  past 
at  least  is  secure.  But  because  this  past  is  so  splendid 
and  because  the  activities  of  the  times  gone  by  have 
been  so  fruitful  and  so  effective,  the  present  debacle 
is  the  more  depressing  and  lamentable.  We  are  not 
now  discussing  the  minister  as  a  theologian.  The  the- 
ological aspect  of  the  Christian  ministry  as  a  rule  has 

207 


2o8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  practical  aspects 
of  the  minister's  life.  The  American  people  have 
been  too  practical  to  have  their  social  and  moral  inter- 
ests interrupted  for  long  by  metaphysical  distinctions 
only  dimly  comprehended  by  those  who  made  them, 
and  which,  if  true,  had  no  practical  bearing  upon  the 
life  and  well  being  of  those  who  were  supposed  to  be 
under  their  sway.  In  practise,  the  American  churches 
have  tried  to  be  moral  and  social  leaders.  They  have 
tried  to  benefit  their  adherents  in  the  ordinary  work- 
ing out  of  life  duties  and  in  the  ordinary  endeavor  to 
make  life  helpful,  worthy  and  of  good  report.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  many  communities  as  such  ever 
were  deeply  stirred  by  theological  quarrels  and  merely 
endured  their  ministers  when  they  discussed  these,  as 
necessary  to  the  clerical  peace  of  mind  or  professional 
satisfaction. 

But  this  very  fact  brings  into  bolder  relief  the  un- 
welcome truth  that  relatively  the  Christian  pulpit  is 
the  least  effective  of  American  social  institutions  and 
this  result  has  come  about  by  no  accident  or  mystery 
of  Providence.  The  American  pulpit  started  exactly 
as  it  should  have  started.  It  came  with  the  founders 
and  partook  with  the  founders  in  the  business  of  na- 
tion building  and  proved  itself  capable  and  worthy  of 
its  task.  It  ground  into  the  early  life  of  the  nation 
certain  fundamental  habits  of  religious  thought  which 
have  not  yet  wholly  disappeared.  It  created  a  form 
of  allusion  to  phases  of  the  national  life,  which  have 
not  yet  dropped  out  of  our  habits  of  speech  or  out 
of  our  public  documents.     It  even  established  certain 


Israel  in  Bondage  209 

religious  days,  which  still  remain  on  our  calendar  and 
are  memorials  of  what  has  been,  even  if  they  are  now 
dead  letters  as  to  their  actual  signification.  The  start 
was  right  and  at  the  beginning,  the  task  was  under- 
stood and  its  duties  met  with  decision  and  firmness. 
Perhaps  they  were  met  with  too  much  decision  and  too 
much  firmness.  But  whether  this  is  the  case  or  not, 
the  history  of  the  American  clergyman  as  a  fac- 
tor in  the  social,  industrial  and  moral  upbuild- 
ing of  the  national  life,  is  a  record  which 
shines  with  glory  and  deserved  honor.  He  has 
been  an  instructor  in  times  of  peace  and  an 
inspirer  and  consoler  in  times  of  depression  and  war. 
He  has  been  a  monument  of  energy  and  zeal.  He 
has  been  a  miracle  of  heroic  devotion  and  sacrifice. 
He  has  forsaken  all  to  follow  his  Master  and  there 
are  few  who  can  stand  up  and  say  aught  against  him 
as  a  contributory  factor  in  the  civilization  of  his  coun- 
try. It  does  not  lie  in  the  mouth  of  any  man  or  class 
of  men  to  have  aught  but  praise  for  the  men  who  have 
made  the  American  pulpit  glorious. 

But  it  must  also  be  remembered  when  this  record 
is  studied  and  its  glory  appropriated,  that  he  had  ma- 
terials for  such  achievements  which  were  not  gen- 
erally in  the  possession  of  his  contemporaries.  He 
had,  for  the  most  part,  education,  which  his  fellowmen 
had  not.  He  had  authority  which  they  had  not,  or 
having,  dared  not  exercise.  He  had  a  prestige  aris- 
ing from  his  unquestioned  superiority  in  mental  ca- 
pacity, which  was  made  even  greater  by  his  un- 
doubted purity  of  life  and  devotion  to  the  common 


210    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

good.  He  was  the  agency  for  the  making  of  public 
opinion  and  his  resources  for  molding  that  opinion 
were  unmatched.  He  was  without  competition  in  the 
realm  of  moral  obligation  and  public  duty,  and  was 
the  censor  of  his  contemporaries.  All  these  things 
placed  upon  him  large  responsibilities  and  these  in 
turn  developed  ability  and  power  to  apply  himself  to 
their  proper  performance.  His  fiat  had  the  authority 
of  the  moral  law  itself  and  was  not  infrequently  su- 
perior to  the  civil  law.  A  profession  which,  under 
these  conditions  did  not  develop  powerful  personali- 
ties and  attract  to  itself  masterful  men,  would  be  very 
remarkable.  As  a  matter  of  history  the  profession 
did  attract  men  who  were  not  only  churchmen  but 
statesmen.  It  attracted  men  who  were  not  only 
churchmen  and  statesmen,  but  financiers,  men  of  af- 
fairs, thinkers  in  the  larger  sense  of  the  word  and 
pioneers  in  social  and  scholarly  research.  They  were 
in  the  best  sense  educators  and  leaders  in  education. 
There  is  scarcely  a  project  during  the  golden  age  of 
the  American  pulpit  which  did  not  succeed  chiefly  be- 
cause it  had  behind  it  clerical  sanction  and  clerical  en- 
couragement, to  say  nothing  of  clerical  initiative  and 
support.  That  is  what  the  minister  used  to  be.  It 
would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  now  there  is  none  so 
poor  as  to  do  him  reverence,  but  it  is  true  and  noth- 
ing but  the  truth  to  say,  that  he  is  the  least  effective 
figure  in  the  national  life  when  his  education,  his 
preparation  for  his  work,  and  his  abilities  for  use- 
fulness and  effective  mastery  of  social  forces  are  taken 
into  account.     There  is  no  waste  in  American  life  at 


Israel  in  Bondage  211 

all  comparable  to  the  waste  in  the  uses  of  the  manhood, 
conscience  and  abilities  of  the  American  church  of 
to-day  of  all  denominations.  The  minister  is  no  longer 
the  leader  in  education.  His  zeal  in  this  department 
of  human  activity  had  its  natural  result  when  he  re- 
leased to  others  the  tools  of  knowledge,  of  which  he 
had  formerly  the  exclusive  control.  No  class  of  men 
have  had  a  greater  pride  or  worked  with  greater  in- 
terest and  joy  for  popular  education  than  the  Amer- 
ican clergymen.  That  naturally  resulted  in  a  steadily 
rising  tide  of  knowledge,  to  which  he  had  to  minister, 
increasingly  capable  of  self  direction  and  personal 
initiative  and  steadily  more  restive  under  the  dominion 
which  once  belonged  to  the  ministerial  profession.  It 
was  the  minister  himself  who  did  this.  He  encour- 
aged his  congregation  to  read  and  to  think.  He 
brought  to  them  the  problems  of  life  and  in  the  older 
days  trained  them  in  habits  of  reflection  in  which  he 
was  par  excellence,  a  trained  master.  He  reared  the 
men  by  whom  he  was  superceded.  He  made  often  in 
his  own  study  the  statesmen  by  whom  his  own  powers 
were  presently  to  be  restricted  and  curtailed.  He 
sought  the  funds  and  begged  the  endowments  for  the 
colleges  from  whence  he  was  presently  to  be  thrown 
out  as  overseer  or  corporate  member.  All  this  he  did 
and  did  it  well,  knowing  that  he  was  rearing  a  race 
of  giants,  who  would  presently  be  beyond  his  own 
control.  There  is  no  record  like  this  of  any  calling 
under  heaven  and  the  American  ministers  are  the  lead- 
ers in  the  work.  Moreover,  he  encouraged  investiga- 
tions in  science  and  industry,  which  created  the  vast 


212    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

wealth  which  finally  came  to  be  his  taskmaster  and  to 
bind  him  hand  and  foot.  He  rejoiced  to  keep  out 
of  the  struggle  for  material  advantage  and  manfully 
relied  upon  his  doctrine  of  miracle  for  his  own  future 
and  that  of  his  family.  When  the  story  of  the  Amer- 
ican ministry  on  this  side  of  its  life  is  fully  written, 
if  it  ever  can  be  written,  it  will  make  the  perform- 
ances of  the  early  Christians  look  very  simple  and 
childlike.  Heroic  virtues  in  the  story  of  our  ministry 
are  as  plentiful  as  the  dreams  of  youth.  The  indus- 
trial and  scientific  miracles  of  to-day  are  nothing  com- 
pared to  the  moral  efforts  of  the  pioneer  clergymen, 
struggling  with  not  merely  titanic  and  utterly  unregu- 
lated humanity,  grappling  with  a  new  land,  but  the 
combination  of  this  struggle  with  the  hardly  less 
herculean  task  of  subjugating  the  new  land  and  mak- 
ing it  habitable  for  man.  He  did  all  this,  because  he 
was  not  only  pastor  but  teacher.  Out  of  his  study 
came  the  weekly  instruction  of  the  community.  Out 
of  the  same  study  came  the  instruction  of  the  youth 
and  the  guidance  of  the  school  and  the  college.  Out 
of  this  same  study  came  the  projects  for  community 
improvement  and  activity.  Out  of  this  same  study 
came  the  warnings  against  dangers  and  pitfalls  which 
threatened  the  interests  of  the  flock.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  old  time  pastor  was  a  miracle  of  men.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  he  was  given  sublime  authority  and 
unquestioned  obedience.  He  was  worthy  of  them  all. 
He  was  the  teacher  of  them  all.  But  that  primacy 
is  gone  and  gone  forever.  His  sons  are  still  the  lead- 
ers and  commanders  of  the  people  in  the  sciences,  the 


Israel  in  Bondage  213 

arts,  and  the  literature.  The  story  of  the  sons  of 
clergymen  who  have  made  the  records  of  science,  in- 
dustry, statesmanship  and  art  glorious,  is  almost  as 
wonderful  as  the  record  of  the  fathers  in  their  call- 
ing. But  the  minister  himself  has  steadily  declined 
in  importance  and  power,  and  to-day  is  a  negligible 
factor  in  the  formation  and  direction  of  public  opinion. 
His  value  as  an  agitator  is  still  large,  due  mainly  to 
the  fact  that  he  has  a  weekly  platform  where,  within 
certain  limitations,  he  may  speak  on  a  limited  range 
of  subjects,  within  a  more  limited  area  of  ideas.  But 
as  an  educational  leader  he  has  disappeared.  This  is 
not  saying  that  he  has  dropped  out  of  education.  It 
is  merely  saying  that  he  no  longer  occupies  the  posi- 
tion of  primacy. 

The  minister  is  no  longer  a  social  leader,  by  reason 
of  his  profession.  The  backwardness  of  the  church 
in  the  great  social  emergence  of  the  nation  and  its 
alliance  with  the  backward  interests  and  the  social  de- 
fectives of  the  nation  has  reacted  in  a  similar  manner 
upon  the  profession,  so  that  while  there  are  a  great 
many  ministers  who  are  interested  in  social  questions 
and  social  matters  of  one  kind  and  another,  the  ef- 
fective and  genuine  leadership  which  naturally  should 
go  with  the  ministerial  profession  is,  in  fact,  else- 
where. There  is  hardly  a  department  of  social  en- 
deavor, innumerable  as  such  efforts  now  are,  in  which 
the  primacy  is  accorded  to  the  ministerial  profession. 
This  ia  true  even  of  the  administration  of  charity, 
once  the  exclusive  function  of  the  church  and  its  min- 
istry.    So  true  is  this  that  the  school  of  social  work- 


214    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ers  connected  with  Harvard  University  teaches  its  stu- 
dents that  not  only  is  charity  administered  by  the 
churches  worthless,  but  on  the  whole  damaging  to 
the  wise  administration  of  charity.  Whether  the  case 
is  as  bad  as  this,  may  not  be  easily  decided.  It  is 
enough  that,  while  the  social  workers  are  glad  enough 
to  enlist  church  members  for  their  work  and  glad 
enough  to  take  church  contributions,  they  have  little 
or  no  respect  for  anything  in  the  line  of  charity  which 
the  church  performs.  Indeed  in  some  communities 
the  churches  actually  turn  over  their  cases  of  charity 
to  the  organized  charity  of  the  city,  preferring  to  ad- 
minister their  charities  in  this  fashion,  a  most  amazing 
exhibition  of  the  abandonment  of  one  c?f  its  primary 
functions  in  the  community  by  the  Christian  church. 
Here  again  there  is  no  contention  that  the  minister 
is  not  engaged  in  social  effort.  What  is  maintained 
is  that  he  is  by  no  means  an  important  or  decisive 
factor  by  reason  of  his  profession.  When  he  is  a 
factor  the  cause  is  one  of  personality  just  as  it  is  in 
the  matter  of  education.  Individual  clergymen  by 
reason  of  special  talent  of  temperament  or  force  of 
character,  may  emerge  from  the  obscurity  of  their 
profession  in  these  matters,  but  the  professional  equip- 
ment and  standing  has  almost  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
Quite  the  contrary,  if  the  minister  does  become  con- 
spicuously capable  in  any  of  these  lines,  he  ceases  to 
figure  in  the  public  mind  as  a  clergyman  and  not  in- 
frequently finds  himself  called  upon  or  comptelled  to 
leave  his  profession  by  reason  of  the  new  duties  or 
opportunities  thrust  upon  him.     This  is  one  of  the 


Israel  in  Bondage  215 

most  singular  developments  of  the  entire  situation. 
Given  a  clergyman  with  large  administrative  capacity, 
public  spirit  and  talent  for  administration,  all  of  them 
qualities  which  should  find  the  fullest  possible  op- 
portunity for  exercise  in  the  church,  he  invariably 
emerges  as  a  publicist,  commonly  called  a  politician, 
or  a  public  officer  or  an  administrator  of  some  public 
or  organized  charity  or  reform.  Nearly  all  these 
things  ought  to  be  possible  in  the  ministry  and  are  in 
thorough  consonance  with  the  ministerial  calling,  jus- 
tified by  the  profession  itself  and  by  its  history  and 
documents.  But  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  do  these 
things  in  the  ministerial  profession  as  such,  except  in 
rare  and  exceptional  cases.  Hence  the  procession  out 
of  the  ministry  of  the  men  of  public  capacity  of  ad- 
ministrative talent  or  social  initiative.  The  reason 
will  presently  appear. 

The  minister  is  no  longer  the  religious  leader  of 
the  community.  This  is  perhaps  the  strangest  fact 
of  all.  But  it  is  perfectly  explained,  when  we  come 
to  examine  the  uses  to  which  the  church  has  been  put 
and  how  it  has  been  bound  in  such  a  way  that  it  can- 
not give  the  fullest  outlet  for  the  most  thoroughly 
religious  activities  of  the  minister  who  is  at  its  head. 
The  layman,  especially  the  layman  who  is  himself  un- 
trammeled  and  without  private  interests  to  subserve, 
develops  naturally,  where  the  minister  reaches  the 
limit  of  his  parole  and  hence  becomes  and  often  is 
the  real  religious  pioneer  and  exponent  of  true  reli- 
gion in  the  community.  Certain  it  is  that  the  free- 
dom of  expression  in  matters  religious,  which  prop- 


2i6    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

erly  belongs  to  the  ministerial  profession,  is  now  ex- 
ercised chiefly  by  laymen.  The  experiments  in 
religious  work,  which  are  called  for  by  changing  con- 
ditions and  necessities  are  dominated,  not  by  the  men 
who  are  to  do  the  work,  but  by  the  real  leaders  in 
religion,  namely,  the  men  who  dominate  the  agencies 
and  the  machinery  by  which  such  a  program  is  car- 
ried out.  There  is  not  a  minister  of  first  rank  in  the 
country  who  does  not  chafe  at  the  spectacle  of  ill  in- 
formed, crass,  self-satisfied  members  of  the  laity,  pro- 
nouncing upon  the  wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  plans  for 
religious  progress  of  which  they  have  not  the  slightest 
comprehension.  Every  national  assembly  is  thus 
made  ludicrous  by  the  laymen  trying  to  discuss  mat- 
ters of  which  their  knowledge  is  but  slight  and  that 
little  contemptible.  But  the  clergymen  are  compelled, 
as  a  profession,  to  submit  to  such  a  situation,  as  no 
other  profession  with  similar  education  would  for  a 
moment  submit.  Thus  religion  is  deprived  of  its  nat- 
ural leadership  and  for  it  often  is  substituted  that 
of  the  so-called  man  of  business,  whose  only  recom- 
mendation ordinarily  is  that  he  figures  largely  in 
the  financial  budget  of  the  church  or  the  denomina- 
tion! 

We  may  well  admit  that  the  position  of  the  earlier 
clergy  was  unnaturally  preeminent.  But  the  fall  of 
the  clergy  in  influence,  in  power,  and  in  efifectiveness, 
is  not  satisfactorily  explained  merely  by  the  rise  of 
new  competitors  for  power  and  influence.  The  rea- 
son is  much  more  complex  in  its  working.  It  deals 
with  the  adoption  by  the  church  of  standards  which 


Israel  in  Bondage  217 

have  no  business  to  govern  any  church.     It  is  because 
the  modern  clergyman  is  not  a  free  man. 


II 

Whenever  the  subject  of  the  freedom  of  the  clergy 
is  discussed  there  is  a  quick  rejoinder  from  three  ex- 
tremely diverse  quarters.  It  is  natural  that  the  min- 
isters themselves  should  not  be  willing  to  admit  that 
they  are  not  free  to  perform  the  duties  of  their  pro- 
fession without  let  or  hindrance,  since  such  an  admis- 
sion must  necessarily  vitiate  the  moral  quality  of  their 
services.  But  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  such  admissions 
have  been  increasing  in  number  and  importance  in 
recent  years.  Nor  is  the  psychology  of  the  situation 
difficult  of  interpretation.  The  minister  deals  with 
many  things  which  are  not  capable  of  demonstration 
in  the  scientific  sense.  He  deals  with  moral  and  social 
and  community  problems,  of  the  facts  of  which  he  is 
morally  certain,  but  which  in  the  nature  of  them  he 
cannot  absolutely  prove.  It  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
hardships  of  any  calling  which  deals  with  moral  ques- 
tions, that  things  which  everybody  knows  to  be  true, 
cannot  always,  or  even  often,  be  asserted  categor- 
ically. Sometimes  even  to  hint  at  them  occasions 
trouble  for  everybody  concerned.  Yet  it  is  precisely 
these  things  which  constitute  the  major  portion  of  the 
clergyman's  work.  He  knows,  for  example,  often, 
that  the  moral  conditions  of  the  schools  is  deplorable, 
or  that  certain  political  conditions  are  intimately  and 
often  causally  related  to  the  moral  conditions  of  his 


2i8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

parish,  yet  to  state  these  things  is  to  affront  large 
portions  of  the  community  and  he  is  placed  in  the  po- 
sition of  assailing  individuals  and  assuming  the  role 
of  moral  censor  of  people  with  whom  he  has  no  spe- 
cial relations.  Yet  these  are  the  things  which  it  is 
his  business  to  do.  It  is  a  common  experience  that 
the  young  minister  deals  with  these  matters  frankly, 
and  gets  into  trouble  because  the  politician  and  the 
vicious  classes  together  unite  in  demanding  categorical 
accusations  which  cannot  be  made,  or  if  made,  involve 
possibly  legal  proceedings  for  which  the  minister  has 
no  provision  and  for  which  his  church  makes  none. 
It  may  be  observed,  however,  that  where  such  pro- 
vision is  at  his  command  and  where  the  church  sus- 
tains and  supports  the  minister  financially  in  his  war 
upon  the  baser  elements  of  the  community,  he  usually 
is  triumphant.  But  this  is  rarely  the  case,  unless  he 
happens  to  be  skilful  enough  to  unite  the  militant  ele- 
ments of  the  community,  irrespective  of  political  or 
rehgious  affiliations,  and  becomes  their  natural  leader 
and  representative.  But  this  process  accomplishes 
what  has  been  indicated  already  —  he  passes  out  of 
the  community  mind  as  a  clergyman  and  makes  for 
himself  a  reputation  as  a  publicist  —  effective  in  spite 
of  his  calling,  not  because  of  it. 

But  the  minister  by  the  terms  of  his  profession  must 
be  an  optimist.  He  must  believe  in  the  salvability  of 
his  community  and  the  souls  in  it.  Hence  he  cannot 
readily  admit  to  himself  that  as  the  representative 
of  a  triumphant  and  divinely  directed  Gospel  he  is 
not  also  a  free  man,  though  at  every  step  he  sees  his 


Israel  in  Bondage  219 

efforts  nullified  and  his  work  frustrated  by  conditions 
that,  given  the  resources  and  the  freedom  to  attack, 
he  could  overcome  to  the  great  advancement  of  every 
moral  interest  in  the  community.  But  not  infre- 
quently he  does  attempt  these  things  without  the  re- 
sources named  and  the  result  is  failure  and  defeat. 
By  the  time  he  changes  his  parish  several  times  he 
subconsciously  doubts  the  wisdom  of  his  former 
plans,  begins  to  think  that  possibly  he  has  no  mission 
in  this  direction,  lets  the  direct  and  forceful  elements 
of  his  preaching  gradually  die  out  into  platitudes 
and  assertions  that  nobody  thinks  of  questioning  and 
the  metamorphosis  is  complete.  In  this  he  is  mate- 
rially assisted  by  his  economic  status  of  which  more 
later.  But  the  simple  truth  is,  that  he  is  not  con- 
scious of  actually  leaving  the  field  or  of  abandoning 
his  platform  though  he  does  both.  Perhaps  he  thinks 
he  is  growing  wiser  and  that  these  attempts  were  the 
sins  of  his  professional  youth.  But  he  still  thinks  he 
is  free  though  he  knows  absolutely  that  he  cannot, 
will  not,  and  dare  not  deal  with  the  practical  hin- 
drances which  mar  and  unmake  his  professional  serv- 
ice to  his  church  and  the  community  in  which  it  op- 
erates. He  therefore  rejects  the  statement  that  he  has 
ceased  to  be  free.  This  is  both  natural  and  in  part 
creditable  because  it  arises  from  his  own  reflections 
upon  his  own  work,  and  his  disposition  to  agree  that 
he  is  not  infallible  in  his  judgment  as  to  what  may  be 
wisest,  under  certain  conditions,  to  do. 

A  similar  protest  arises  from  the  congregation  it- 
self for  reasons  not  entirely  unlike  those  which  in- 


220    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

fluence  the  minister.  To  admit  that  the  titular  head 
of  the  church  is  not  free,  is  an  impeachment  of  the 
institution  that  employs  him  and  puts  him  forward  in 
the  community  as  its  representative  figure.  Of  course 
such  an  admission  cannot  be  made.  But  here  again 
the  subconscious  working  of  the  congregational  mind 
is  explained  by  the  fact  that  it  knows  perfectly  well 
that  the  antagonism  of  certain  elements  is  usually  fatal 
to  the  well  being  of  the  church,  especially  on  its  finan- 
cial side.  Just  as  it  is  not  necessary  always  for  rail- 
roads to  control  or  a  group  of  financiers  to  control  or 
actually  handle  the  majority  of  the  stock  in  a  subsidi- 
ary, the  scattered  status  and  inability  to  get  together 
on  the  part  of  the  vast  majority  rendering  them  abso- 
lutely helpless,  so  in  the  churches  a  few  men  perhaps 
and  not  infrequently  a  single  man,  is  observed  to  be 
so  determined  and  the  rest  so  undetermined  or  unable 
to  act  together,  that  the  oligarchy  or  the  individual 
tyrant  governs  and  directs  the  whole.  Everybody 
knows  it.  Nobody  as  a  rule  utters  it.  Everybody 
yields  to  this  dominion,  though  nobody  admits  that 
the  power  does  not  exist  to  dethrone  it,  whenever 
there  is  any  determination  to  do  so.  But  the  admis- 
sion that  freedom  does  not  exist  is  both  a  moral  and 
a  social  impeachment  which  does  not  come  readily 
from  any  social  group.  Hence  the  protest  against  the 
statement  that  ministers  are  not  free. 

The  third  protest  arises  from  those  who  are  the 
beneficiaries  of  a  situation  which  involves  a  bound 
clergy.  These  of  course  cannot  admit  with  any  com- 
fort to  themselves  that  they  are  oppressors  and  take 


Israel  in  Bondage  221 

the  responsibility  of  such  an  admission.  Not  infre- 
quently these  persons  operate  through  the  very  people 
whom  they  are  governing  and  sometimes  through  the 
minister  who  is  their  bond-servant.  But  it  is  to  their 
advantage  to  keep  up  the  illusion  that  the  minister  is 
free,  and  being  free  is  choosing  his  course.  It  is  this 
group  who  usually  want  the  emphasis  placed  upon 
what  they  call  the  *'  gospel "  as  distinguished  from 
the  elements  of  that  gospel,  which  have  to  do  with 
the  practical  moralities  of  daily  life.  Like  the  sim- 
ilar group  in  the  wider  community,  they  are  against 
controversy,  especially  controversy  with  personal 
morality,  when  it  affects  the  life  and  well  being  o-f 
the  multitude.  They  think  socialism  to  be  a  form 
of  demoniacal  possession  and  hate  to  hear  the  word 
"  social "  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it.  They  are  the  ef- 
fective government  of  the  church,  and  they  are  the 
portion  which  has  always  brought  and  is  now  bring- 
ing organized  religion  into  contempt.  They  always 
know  where  they  are  going  and  are  not  hesitant  to 
visit  prompt  and  decisive  punishment  upon  what  they 
do  not  like.  Upon  the  question  of  their  right  to  gov- 
ern they  have  no  conscience  and  for  the  most  part 
they  have  no  consciousness  of  the  social  problem,  ex- 
cept as  it  relates  to  evils  of  which  they  are  not  guilty 
and  have  no  pecuniary  interest.  Being  in  the  church, 
and  utilizing  the  church  for  their  own  ends  and  direct- 
ing it  in  such  channels  as  suits  their  own  interests, 
they  of  course  must  resent  and  do  resent  the  imputa- 
tion that  they  are  the  oppressors  of  the  clergy.  The 
moral  character  of  this  group,  existent  in  almost  every 


222    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

church,  is  a  very  curious  problem  in  itself.  At  its 
best  it  is  simply  a  group  of  men  who  do  not  take  to 
yachts,  horses  and  operas,  and  other  costly  social  di- 
versions, utilizing  the  church  as  their  playground  for 
the  satisfaction  of  private  whims  and  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  sense  of  personal  supremacy.  Nothing  is 
much  more  striking  in  this  connection  than  to  observe 
that  men  can  become  prominent  influential  and  de- 
cisive in  ecclesiastical  matters,  who,  outside  that  field, 
could  never  be  heard  from  in  any  connection  unless 
they  combined  with  their  personality  wealth  enough 
to  make  them  desirable  on  that  account.  Nothing  in 
the  church  has  been  so  humilating  to  its  first  rate  in- 
tellects as  the  emergence  of  a  horde  of  mediocrities 
who,  judged  by  the  standards  of  the  world,  are  not 
only  second  rate  people  at  best,  but  upon  whom  mere 
effort  to  appear  anything  but  second  rate  would  in- 
stantly bring  down  upon  them  the  wrath  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  live.  There  are  notable  excep- 
tions, of  course.  Every  community  has  some.  But 
the  rule  is  as  stated,  and  it  is  this  fact  that  has  stead- 
ily driven  out  of  the  ministry  the  first  rate  men,  who, 
by  intention,  spirit  and  desire  would  be  glad  to  serve 
the  Christian  church.  All  altruistic  callings  involve 
almost  by  their  very  nature  a  certain  subservience  to 
the  providers  of  the  funds  by  which  they  are  carried 
on.  In  the  case  of  the  ministry  this  subservience  car- 
ries with  it  the  personal  subjugation  of  the  minister 
himself  to  a  class  of  men  who  are  his  inferiors  in 
character,  in  education  and  in  moral  worth  and  zeal. 
This  is  the  waste  that  the  capable  young  men  of  the 


Israel  in  Bondage  223 

country  are  not  ready  any  longer  to  continue.  Other 
reasons  have  a  place  in  the  decline  in  the  character 
and  capacity  of  the  clergy,  but  the  main  one  with  the 
capable  portion  of  its  natural  supply  now  almost  cut 
off  is,  that  the  ministry,  as  now  constituted,  in  a  man 
of  first  rate  powers,  forms  a  waste  of  manhood  and 
capacity  which  is  without  any  parallel  in  American 
life. 

Ill 

But  if  the  loss  of  the  intellectual  freedom  and  ut- 
terance of  the  cle'rgy  is  deplorable,  the  loss  of  his  eco- 
nomic freedom  is  pitiable.  One-third  of  the  clergy 
of  this  country  are  on  the  poverty  line.  Here  again 
the  statistics  are  not  available  though  the  facts  are 
beyond  doubt.  While  every  interest  in  the  land,  rep- 
resenting either  capital  or  labor  has  been  pounding 
for  relief  from  onerous  conditions  and  demanding 
and  usually  getting  what  it  had  a  right  to  have,  while 
the  cost  of  living  has  steadily  mounted,  the  clergyman 
has  felt  himself  inhibited  by  his  moral  professions 
from  dealing  with  this  matter,  with  the  result  that  the 
household  of  the  ordinary  minister  is  a  financial 
tragedy.  A  former  president  of  Harvard  University 
discussing  this  subject  a  few  years  ago  and  especially 
with  reference  to  country  parishes,  admitted  the  in- 
ability of  these  to  secure  the  ministers  they  needed 
and  ought  to  have  and  proposed  the  startling  and  in- 
teresting remedy  that  young  men  of  wealth,  either  by 
inheritance  or  marriage,  should  enter  the  ministry  and 
take  these  places  for  the  raising  of  the  standard  of 


224    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  profession!  That  was  the  only  thing  a  great 
financial  administrator  had  to  offer  for  the  fact  that 
the  rural  districts  have  become  moral  and  social 
wastes  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  and  in  some  cases 
dropping  into  conditions  of  immorality  which  are  al- 
most unbelievable.  Young  men  of  wealth  should 
undertake  these  tasks  for  the  uplift  of  the  profession, 
that  was  the  remedy!  Of  course  the  wealthy  young 
men,  whether  their  wealth  be  that  of  inheritance  or 
marriage,  will  do  nothing  of  the  sort  and  if  they  did 
they  would  soon  find  that  what  these  rural  parishes 
want  is  not  such  young  persons,  but  ministers  of  their 
own  stock,  who  are  free  and  economically  self-existent 
and  self-sustaining.  That  so  serious  a  thinker  and  so 
religious  a  man  as  President  Eliot  could  make  such 
a  proposition  is  itself  the  surest  index  of  the  hope- 
lessness of  the  situation  as  the  case  now  stands. 

The  Christian  ministry  is  the  most  helpless  to-day 
of  any  class  of  workers  who  represent  even  approxi- 
mately their  training,  cost  of  preparation  and  service 
to  the  community.  Their  very  helplessness  has  had 
the  effect  erf  taking  away  from  them  many  of  their 
natural  prerogatives,  just  as  the  attack  by  parasites  is 
always  made  upon  those  least  able  to  stand  it.  His 
moral  and  religious  authority  have  already  been  un- 
dermined as  has  been  shown.  But  his  financial  help- 
lessness has  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  defend  his 
freedom,  even  to  alter  his  location  at  will  or  to  com- 
bat assaults  on  his  professional  usefulness  because 
he  cannot  call  to  his  aid  the  assistance  he  needs,  when 
his  authority  in  his  own  field  and  province  of  activity 


Israel  in  Bondage  225 

is  assailed.  Here  again  the  proof  is  seen  when  we 
have  cases  where  the  minister's  financial  status  is  such 
that  he  can  defend  himself.  Few  assaults  are  made 
upon  the  minister  known  to  have  powerful  financial 
support  either  of  his  own  or  from  relations  or  friends. 
Such  a  clergyman  can  often  for  years  hold  his  posi- 
tion against  the  otherwise  dominant  oligarchy,  even 
those  being  actively  against  him  or  his  continuance 
in  his  office.  Or  he  may  get  the  same  result  by  being 
exceptionally  serviceable  to  the  community  outside  of 
his  own  church  which  gives  him  substantially  the  same 
result,  though  it  is  not  defined  in  financial  terms.  But 
the  rule  is  one  of  economic  helplessness,  because  his 
income  is  now  so  reduced  that  he  is  literally  tolerated 
in  the  community.  Here  again  we  are  faced  with  the 
curious  situation.  Whenever  the  financial  needs  of 
the  ministry  are  discussed,  his  advocates  are  faced 
with  the  lofty  interrogatory  as  to  whether  he  is  in 
business  "  for  money  "  as  though  anybody  but  an  ab- 
solute fool  ever  engaged  in  any  altruistic  calling  for 
the  money  in  it.  But  the  scoundrels  who  hold  the 
lash  over  the  clergyman  still  are  able  to  bamboozle 
that  portion  of  the  community  which  feels  any  moral 
responsibility  in  the  premises,  while  the  vast  mass  of 
the  community  anxious  with  their  own  trouble  are 
totally  indifferent  to  the  matter. 

A  good  many  years  ago  there  were  many  clerical 
privileges  which  were  based  upon  the  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  the  minister  was  by  the  nature  of  his 
calling  bound  to  be  underpaid  and  bound  to  be  dumb 
about  it.     Hence  discounts  in  purchases,  half-fare  on 


226    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

railways,  and  many  other  similar  things  were  his. 
But  these  have  largely  disappeared  partly  by  economic 
necessity,  and  largely  because  the  minister  is  no  longer 
an  important  enough  a  figure  to  make  any  such  con- 
cessions worth  while.  They  persist  of  course  in  some 
cases  but  they  are  survivals.  If  the  whole  story  of 
the  privation  of  the  clergyman's  household  could  be 
told,  as  in  the  nature  of  things  it  cannot  be  told,  it 
would  be  the  most  sickening  and  heartrending  story 
of  misery  and  pain  and  shame  that  could  be  penned 
as  a  part  of  a  great  wealthy  civilization  which  has 
made  wealth  its  deity.  Taking  into  account  the  re- 
quirements made  upon  him>  his  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  needs  of  the  less  favored  of  his  fellow  beings, 
and  his  constant  contact  with  the  story  of  mankind's 
wretchedness,  sin  and  want,  his  own  position  is  one 
of  pity  and  commiseration,  which  should  damn  half 
the  members  of  the  Christian  church  for  their  care- 
lessness, indifference  and  lack  of  suitable  regard  for 
their  representative  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Let  any  long  continued  sickness  or  other  extraordinary 
draft  upon  the  minister's  purse  arise,  and  over  the 
poverty  line  he  goes.  The  economic  waste  of  the 
incessant  removals,  entirely  needless  in  most  cases  and 
due  almost  exclusively  to  the  loss  of  freedom,  which 
alone  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  build  up  the  eco- 
nomic resources  of  his  parish,  under  the  tyranny  of 
a  ruthless  and  conscienceless  oligarchy  he  drags  along 
a  harassed  miserable  existence,  which  makes  most  of 
them  old  before  their  time  and  wasted  in  mind  and 
broken  in  spirit,  a  sad  heap  of  wreckage  among  men. 


Israel  in  Bondage  227 

That  this  wreckage  is  not  standing  on  the  street  cor- 
ners begging  bread  does  not  alter  the  fact.  That  it 
is  not  crying  out  at  public  meetings  does  not  alter  it. 
It  is  there,  one,  if  not  the  saddest  fact  of  our  economic 
muddle.  The  one  redeeming  feature  about  it  has  been 
and  is,  that  the  ministerial  privation  breeds  sons  and 
daughters  trained  in  the  closest  economy  and  observ- 
ance of  the  cost  of  things,  with  the  result  that  when 
these  same  sons  bravely  throwing  overboard  the  in- 
sane claim  that  they  should  perpetuate  the  misery  they 
have  seen  at  home,  enter  other  professions,  they  come 
to  the  fore  and  soon  become  able  to  keep  from  the 
poorhouse  the  parents  who  begot  them.  This  is  the 
reason  and  almost  the  only  reason  why  ministers  are 
not  more  often  than  they  are  objects  of  public  char- 
ity. There  is  again  a  chapter  worth  looking  into,  that 
of  the  sons  of  clergymen  who  have  refused  to  follow 
the  profession  of  the  father.  Let  those  who  try  to 
pretend  that  the  results  indicated  have  come  about  by 
the  sole  channel  of  the  minister's  personal  inefficiency 
and  lack  of  ability  examine  the  record  of  the  sons  in 
commerce,  in  law,  in  medicine,  in  science  or  in  educa- 
tion. It  would  be  a  curious  soil  that  bred  such  fruit, 
having  itself  no  elements  of  power  and  natural  force 
and  f ruitfulness.  By  their  fruits  ye  may  know  them ! 
Perhaps  no  evidence  could  be  more  convincing  of 
the  economic  dependence  and  helplessness  of  the  min- 
isters than  the  change  of  attitude  toward  them  by  the 
wage  earners  of  the  community.  Formerly  they 
looked  upon  him  with  a  little  of  envy  as  having  a 
"  nice,  aisy  job,"  seeing  only  his  good  clothes  (often 


228    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

gifts),  and  his  general  air  of  prosperity  on  the  out- 
side and  his  blithe  assumption  of  an  important  posi- 
tion in  the  community.  But  all  this  is  now  changed. 
Skilled  workers,  secure  in  the  backing  of  their  power- 
ful trade  union,  not  only  do  not  envy  the  average 
minister,  but  take  it  for  granted  that  he  is  a  creature 
of  charity.  "  We  always  pity  the  minister,"  shouted 
a  great  meeting  to  the  present  writer,  on  one  occasion, 
when  an  effort  was  made  to  show  the  natural  diffi- 
culties of  the  clergyman  in  taking  hold  of  social  re- 
medial movements  within  his  own  parish. 

But  the  saddest  part  of  this  whole  story  of  the 
financial  helplessness  of  the  clergy  comes  in  the  fact 
that  because  of  it  they  have  become  competitors  with 
each  other,  in  such  a  way  that  they  are  made  instru- 
ments of  their  own  further  humiliation.  There  is  no 
minister  in  this  land  that  does  not  know  that  the  mo- 
ment his  parish  is  vacated,  the  great  horde  of  the  min- 
isterial submerged  third  will  rush  in  to  try  to  lift 
some  of  the  burden  and  hence  there  is  general  rest- 
lessness and  uneasiness  in  almost  every  parish.  Few 
clergymen  expect,  as  indeed  few  could,  to  continue 
long  in  the  places  where  they  are.  Many,  even  of  the 
first  class,  are  living  not  on  their  salaries,  but  on  other 
resources,  sometimes  private  funds,  but  generally 
money  earned  by  supplementary  activities,  working 
with  the  pen,  hack  work  for  newspapers,  editorial 
work,  library  work  and  research,  the  credit  for  which 
presently  somebody  else  will  have,  lecturing  and  the 
like.  It  is  this  also  which  tends  to  obscure  the  prob- 
lem in  all  its  enormity.     Moreover  the  general  rest- 


Israel  in  Bondage  229 

lessness  of  the  period  falls  with  crushing  force  upon 
him  and  unless  he  be  a  person  specially  skilful  in  per- 
forming functions  not  naturally  a  part  of  his  profes- 
sional activity,  he  is  the  first  victim  of  changing  con- 
ditions. One  has  only  to  read  the  flood  of  letters  that 
rolls  in  upon  a  committee  of  a  parish,  that  promises 
the  possibility  of  a  decent  living,  nothing  more,  to  be- 
come aware  how  the  ministers  are  literally  battering 
each  other  to  pieces  in  the  frantic  effort  to  get  to  a 
point  where  they  must  not  worry  day  in  and  day  out, 
concerning  the  barest  needs  of  the  professional  life. 
They  all  know  this  but  nobody  knows  the  way  out. 
And  when  to  all  this  is  added  the  tyranny  of  a  para- 
sitic class  of  ecclesiastical  officials,  who  by  methods 
which  fairly  compare  in  moral  corruptness  with  some 
of  our  political  performances,  ecclesiastical  gunmen 
ready  to  assassinate  the  character  or  prospects,  or  both, 
of  an  independent  youth,  intent  only  upon  fulfilling  his 
ordination  vow,  the  bondage  becomes  well  nigh  ab- 
solute. 

IV 

The  two  forms  of  limitation  just  described  have 
in  the  case  of  the  ministry  resulted  in  a  third  which 
is  perhaps  the  most  disastrous  of  all.  This  is  the  loss 
of  the  power  of  sound  social  and  intellectual  discrim- 
ination, which  is  the  greatest  necessity  of  our  time. 
Broadly  speaking,  the  clergy  of  the  country  are  di- 
vided into  two  hopeless  classes,  in  so  far  as  social 
progress  is  concerned;  they  are  either  enamored  of 
wild  and  untenable  schemes  which  no  similarly  trained 


230   Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

class  of  men  in  the  country  hold  or  can  hold,  or  they 
are  hopelessly  reactionary,  unable  to  see  the  real  rela- 
tions of  religion  to  the  social  question  in  its  entirety. 
On  either  count,  permanent,  sound  and  effective  pub- 
lic influence  is  impossible.  It  is  this  third  result  of 
the  loss  of  freedom  by  the  clergy,  which  has  destroyed 
its  influence  in  the  large  and  powerful  sense,  in  which 
it  should  naturally  be  found  in  any  body  of  men  hav- 
ing had  the  contact  with  education,  social  relations 
and  the  varied  classes  of  men,  which  it  is  peculiarly 
the  privilege  of  the  minister  to  meet  and  know.  By 
all  the  natural  tokens,  no  man  ought  to  be  better  able 
to  speak  for  the  entire  community  than  he.  As  an 
actual  fact  he  is  the  real  spokesman  of  nobody,  not 
even  for  his  own  class.  His  natural  round  of  serv- 
ice should  make  him  the  soundest  analyst  of  social 
conditions  and  his  range  of  opportunity  for  absolutely 
reliable  testimony  as  to  the  workings  of  social  laws 
and  social  practises  is  unrivaled.  But  by  reason 
chiefly  of  the  limitations  we  are  now  discussing,  he  is 
able  to  make  no  use  of  these  opportunities,  is  denied 
the  ability  to  make  sound  deductions  or  if  able  to 
make  them,  to  utter  them  with  freedom,  and  the  re- 
sult is  that  the  reactions  of  his  own  mind  make  him 
impossible  as  a  social  leader,  linking  him  almost  in- 
evitably with  unworkable  radicalism  or  with  impos- 
sible inertia.  It  requires  no  special  insight  to  see  that 
this  loses  for  him  and  for  his  profession  the  respect, 
the  confidence  of  the  very  portion  of  the  community 
which  is  best  able  to  secure  needed  social  reforms.  It 
alienates  from  him  the  virile  elements  of  both  classes 


Israel  in  Bondage  231 

and  makes  him  a  figure  which  can  only,  in  many  cases, 
be  pronounced  absolutely  despicable.  If  this  seems 
a  severe  pronouncement,  let  any  reasonably  well  in- 
formed man  take  up  and  tabulate  the  list  of  absurdi- 
ties, insolences,  ridicule  and  contemptuous  sayings 
which  are  to  be  found  as  respects  the  clergy  in  every 
daily  newspaper  throughout  the  land.  Not  that  the 
real,  sound,  well  disciplined  and  thoroughly  effective 
clergyman  does  not  exist;  but  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
population  does  not  believe  him  to  exist,  and  makes 
no  effort  to  find  out. 

But  the  ministry  is  not  the  greatest  loser  in  this 
unfortunate  situation.  He,  to  be  sure,  drags  out  a 
weary  and  unhappy  existence  struggling  with  adversi- 
ties till  he  lands  upon  the  scrap  heap,  forgotten  and 
ignored,  but  the  greatest  loser  is  not  he.  The  great- 
est sufferer  is  society  itself,  which  has  thus  incapaci- 
tated the  one  class  through  which  it  might  have  the 
truth  told,  because  this  one  class  has,  and  can  have, 
no  possible  interest  in  anything  but  the  truth.  A  free 
clergy,  whenever  there  has  been  one,  has  always  been 
the  guardian  of  civil  liberty  and  the  stoutest  public 
defense  against  encroachment  upon  the  people's  rights. 
A  free  clergy,  when  it  has  existed,  has  always  been 
for  the  fullest  investigation  of  every  condition  of  man- 
kind and  for  the  freest  expression  of  every  form  of 
judgment  upon  those  facts.  In  Anglo-Saxondom, 
this  is  certainly  the  case  and  not  a  few  of  the  liber- 
ties we  now  enjoy  are  directly  due  to  clerical  resist- 
ance against  aggression  by  the  superior,  against  the 
weaker  elements  of  society.    A  free  clergy  has  always 


232    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

been  able  likewise  to  hold  in  check  the  foolish  out- 
bursts which  have  threatened  social  disaster  and  ruin 
and  bring  back  to  reason  and  morality  the  inflamed 
mobs  which  have  been  conscious  only  of  their  own 
wrongs  and  not  at  all  conscious  of  the  rights  of  any- 
body else.  Thus  a  free  clergy  because  it  was  un- 
tainted by  worldly  interest,  because  it  could  not  and 
did  not  take  part  in  the  race  for  wealth  and  what 
wealth  usually  carries  with  it,  was  the  one  class  which 
could,  and  which  did,  call  things  by  their  proper  names 
and  bid  men  seek  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  hold  their 
selfish  passions  in  check  until  the  path  of  natural  and 
sure  progress  was  discovered.  Society  to-day  is  rag- 
ing furiously  and  raging  without  reflection,  because 
for  the  most  part  it  has  no  longer  any  class  in  which 
it  has  the  confidence  that  its  judgments  are  sound  and 
trustworthy  on  the  moral  side.  It  is  here  that  the 
waste  becomes  most  apparent.  It  is  here  also  that 
the  social  loss  of  the  downfall  of  the  clergyman  as  a 
social  figure  is  most  to  be  discerned.  No  surer 
method  could  possibly  be  devised  for  producing  such 
a  situation  as  we  see  to-day  than  to  fetter  the  clergy 
and  bring  it  into  bondage  as  it  has  been  brought.  The 
moral  leadership  and  the  moral  force  which  could  be 
heard  above  the  din  of  contending  interests  and  selfish 
classes  which  once  belonged  to  the  churchman  are 
gone  and  there  has  been  no  substitute.  Those  per- 
sons who  once  hoped  that  scientific  knowledge  and 
scientific  leadership  would  supply  what  the  church  had 
lost,  must  be  looking  ruefully  at  the  scene  before 
them.     Those   who  thought   that   general   education 


Israel  in  Bondage  233 

and  the  diffusion  of  intelligence  would  supply  moral 
repose  and  moral  responsibility,  must  be  having  bad 
times  as  they  contemplate  the  skilled  crime  and  the 
literate  rascality  which  now  makes  crime  so  fascinat- 
ing and  the  criminal  so  powerful.  Those  who  have 
thought  it  great  sport  to  bait  the  minister,  as  the  rep- 
resentative of  other  worlds,  with  no  particular  use  or 
mission  in  this,  must  be  rather  surprised  to  find  when 
the  appeal  comes  for  a  moral  arbiter  who  can  be 
trusted,  to  learn  that  there  is  none  in  sight  and  that 
the  whole  world  is  on  a  war  footing,  class  with  class, 
because  religion  has  been  so  largely  dethroned  alto- 
gether or  disorganized  by  the  downfall  of  its  repre- 
sentative figures.  The  end  of  this  is  not  yet.  By 
easy  and  progressive  stages  not  only  has  society  been 
organized  on  a  war  footing,  grimly  giving  the  lie  to 
many  and  most  of  the  so-called  movements  in  the  di- 
rection of  brotherhood,  but  the  most  intimate  and 
basic  relations  of  humanity  are  being  assailed  and  im- 
dermined,  because  there  is  no  body  of  men  authorized 
to  speak  for  the  rights  of  all  as  against  the  will  and 
desire  of  any  particular  class  who  command  confi- 
dence. We  shall  see  how  this  comes  about  when  we 
examine  the  question  of  the  disease  as  a  symptom  of 
the  moral  disorganization  of  society.  One  of  the 
most  lamentable  as  well  as  ludicrous  evidences  of  this 
may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  many  of  the  social  service 
organizations  are  now  competitors  in  exactly  the  same 
way  in  which  the  churches  are  competitors.  Favorite 
charities  are  matched  against  each  other  and  their  re- 
spective   agents    plead    against    each    other.     Social 


234    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

sectarianism  is  almost  and  absolutely,  where  highly 
developed,  organized  on  the  same  absurd,  wasteful, 
competitive  lines  on  which  the  churches  are  proceed- 
ing. There  is  of  course  much  loose  talk  about  fed- 
eration and  clearing  houses  and  mutuality  and  the 
like,  but  in  practise  everybody  knows  that  it  means 
the  elimination  of  some  body  and  few  have  the  moral 
courage  of  self-immolation  for  the  common  good. 
The  man  who  has  a  little  to  give,  who  will  place  side 
by  side  the  appeals  which  come  to  him  in  the  course 
of  a  year,  will  see  duplication  and  reduplication  in 
exactly  the  same  socially,  economically  and  insanely 
foolish  fashion  in  which  the  churches  do  the  same 
thing.  The  reason  is  plain.  There  is  no  moral  com- 
mon denominator.  They  have  no  common  authority 
to  which  they  appeal  and  whose  judgment  they  all 
accept.  The  church  used  to  be  the  moral  supreme 
court  of  society.  The  clergy  were  the  expositors  of 
that  court,  feeling  by  natural  and  normal  means  the 
pulse  of  society  as  a  whole.  They  knew  what  the  so- 
cial law  on  its  moral  side  demanded  as  nobody  else 
knew  it  and  as  nobody  else  could  know  it.  Where 
you  find  men  free,  trained  and  religious  in  this  pro- 
fession this  is  still  true.  But  when  the  moral  leader- 
ship of  the  church  and  clergy  was  lost  all  this  van- 
ished and  as  a  substitute  we  are  offered  the  recall  of 
morals  by  popular  fiat. 

All  this  produces  the  anomalous  situation  that, 
whereas  formerly  the  minister  represented  the  whole 
people,  demanding  that  all  submit  to  the  law  of  the 
moral  need  and  requirement  of  all,  now  he  is,  when- 


Israel  in  Bondage  235 

ever  he  attempts  to  utter  that  law,  the  natural  target 
for  assault  from  all.  From  being  the  representative 
of  all,  he  is  the  one  against  whom  all  level  their  as- 
saults, as  being  in  part  responsible  for  the  situation 
about  which  all  complain.  And  he  himself,  under 
this  general  assault,  reacts  in  a  perfectly  natural  man- 
ner; either  he  becomes  the  violent,  untempered  and 
irresponsible  radical  or  the  stupid,  impossible  and 
equally  irresponsible  reactionary.  And  since  it  is  one 
of  the  psychological  peculiarities  of  religion  to  make 
more  intense  whatever  it  affects,  we  have  these  two 
types,  the  most  conspicuous  and  the  most  highly  de- 
veloped. This  of  course  does  not  take  into  account 
that  vast  mass  of  utter  helplessness  which  is  not  worth 
consideration  at  all,  which  crawls  along  in  its  poverty, 
only  too  well  satisfied  if  it  can  get  its  daily  morsel  of 
bread  and  creep  quietly,  unnoticed  into  an  obscure 
grave.  What  we  have  been  saying  latterly  applies 
chiefly  to  those  voices  that  are  heard  at  all.  As  pre- 
viously indicated  the  vast  mass  of  the  clergy  belong  to 
the  non-existent  class,  in  so  far  as  the  dominating 
power  building  and  determinative  forces  of  the  com- 
munal life  are  concerned. 


What  happens  all  the  time  to  genuine  Christianity, 
while  its  representative  figure  is  held  in  the  position 
which  has  just  been  outlined  ?  What  recognition  can 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian  religion 
receive  in  the  social  and  legislative  progress  of  the 


236    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

nation  under  these  conditions?  The  answer  is  two- 
fold. In  the  first  place,  the  genuine  Christianity  of 
the  nation  gropes  along,  endeavoring  to  find  some- 
thing that  answers  to  the  conception  of  Christianity 
which  it  holds  and  tries  to  incorporate  it  into  perma- 
nent social  forms.  But  this  genuine  Christianity,  be- 
ing for  the  most  part  alienated  from  the  church, 
knows  little  concerning  the  historic  development  of 
the  Christian  religion  and  therefore  is  unable  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  knowledge  which  that  history  gives,  an 
almost  final  guide  in  such  matters  because  the  funda- 
mental problems  of  humanity  change  only  in  their 
manifestations,  not  in  their  essence.  A  clergy  in- 
structed in  the  social  history  of  Christianity  and  thor- 
oughly trained  to  recognize  the  permanent  problems 
under  their  changing  aspects,  would  be  the  most  val- 
uable factor  that  could  be  brought  to  the  solution  of 
the  social  question,  in  so  far  as  it  admits  of  solution, 
in  any  age  or  time.  But  since  we  have  no  such  clergy 
and  since  we  are  still  in  the  dark  ages  of  the  substi- 
tution of  miracle  for  money,  in  proceeding  with  the 
great  social  interests  of  humanity  what  we  really  get, 
is  a  chaotic  and  confused  endeavor  to  identify  Chris- 
tianity first  with  one  movement,  then  with  another, 
and  so  on  down  the  line  of  the  great  meliorating  move- 
ments of  the  time.  And  with  these  partisans,  not  to 
bring  the  sanctions  of  Christianity  to  their  particular 
cult,  is  to  lose  caste  and  to  sacrifice  influence.  Hence 
the  proper  relation  of  Christianity  to  democracy  is  not 
understood  and  is  one  of  the  first  things  that  needs 
to  be  analyzed  and  explained.     We  all  think  we  un- 


Israel  in  Bondage  237 

derstand  what  democracy  is.  We  all  think  we  under- 
stand what  religion  is.  And  the  coordination  of  these 
two  seems  like  a  simple  task.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  problems  by  itself. 

Because  this  coordination  is  not  properly  made  nor 
the  relations  of  these  elements  of  the  social  question 
understood,  the  genuine  Christianity  of  the  land  is 
split  up,  divided,  because  the  moral  earnestness  of 
spiritual  and  social  progress  is  as  helplessly  divided 
as  the  power  of  the  clergy  is  destroyed.  You  will 
generally  find  the  members  of  one  social  group  assail- 
ing the  members  of  another  social  group  who  differ 
as  to  the  means  to  be  employed  quite  as  severely 
often  as  they  assail  the  common  enemy.  And  when 
these  groups  represent  as  they  often  do  the  genuine 
Christianity  of  the  land,  trying  to  utter  itself,  and  try- 
ing to  apply  its  religion  to  the  social  needs  of  the 
time,  what  you  get  is  not  light  and  leading,  but  mere 
social  rage,  utterly  futile  in  the  working  out  of  any 
permanent  or  healthful  result.  Sometimes  it  is  ac- 
companied by  what  seem  to  be  triumphs,  but  analyzed, 
they  emerge  in  nothing  but  momentary  communal 
outbursts  and  willingness  to  try  anything  "  for  a 
change."  This  at  the  present  moment  is  what  our 
social  movements  amount  to.  Not  that  advances  are 
not  made  and  that  we  have  not  steadily  integrated 
first  into  the  consciousness,  and  finally  into  statutes, 
many  of  the  best  conclusions  of  the  Christianity  of 
the  time  but  that  most  of  these  have  neither  coordina- 
tion nor  effectiveness  as  related  to  the  ordinary  social 
life  of  the  people.     As  has  been  stated  they  are  now 


238    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

parts  of  programs  of  spoliation  by  one  side  or  the 
other.  They  hold  nothing  that  anybody  regards  as 
permanent  and  are  merely  signals  for  the  next  effort 
along  the  same  line.  No  sooner  is  a  law  upon  our 
statute  books  than  simultaneously  forces  are  organ- 
ized for  its  extension  and  repeal.  Sometimes  one  side 
wins  and  sometimes  the  other  and  thus  goes  on  the 
eternal  see-saw  of  social  ebb  and  flow.  If  we  had 
a  clergy  which  could  utter  and  utter  continuously  a 
sane  and  thoroughgoing  Christianity,  conscious  of  its 
true  nature,  conscious  of  its  power  of  adaptation,  con- 
scious of  its  sources  and  capable  of  meeting  with 
precision  and  firmness  the  various  problems  as  they 
arise,  this  situation  would  soon  be  materially  altered. 
Such  a  clergy  would  have  to  have  clear  ideas  upon 
the  fundamental  relations  of  Christianity  and  democ- 
racy. It  would  see  how  the  physical  conditions  of 
mankind  are  inseparably  allied  to  their  moral  and 
spiritual  and  hence  social  interests,  and  would  see  that 
public  health  is  so  allied  with  every  other  problem, 
that  it  cannot  be  ignored  in  the  working  out  of  the 
Christian  problem  of  the  age.  And  they  would  see 
that  behind  and  below  all  this  lies  the  question  of 
religious  education.  In  these  may  be  said  generally 
to  rest  the  expression  of  the  practical  Christianity, 
v/hich  will  sooner  or  later,  in  accord  with  the  true 
nature  of  the  Christian  gospel,  grapple  with  every 
form  of  social  need  and  press  to  its  solution,  so  far 
as  the  time  and  the  conditions  admit  of  permanent 
expression  of  the  principles  of  Christianity.  This  is 
what  a  Christian  clergy  should  do.     It  should  study 


Israel  in  Bondage  239 

the  relations  of  Christianity  to  democracy  and  should 
vigorously  assert  both  the  freedom  and  the  tolerance 
of  opinion  and  judgment  under  democracy.  But 
before  this  can  be  done  we  must  have  a  clergy  released 
from  every  forni  of  bondage.  We  must  have  a  clergy 
with  large  conceptions  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  which 
are  not  blunted  by  too  intense  devotion  to  a  particular 
phase  which  may  vitiate  the  authority  of  the  whole. 
We  shall  get  relief  from  the  rage  which  is  now  de- 
stroying the  morals  of  the  nation,  under  the  guise  of 
seeking  its  moral  and  social  regeneration,  only  as  we 
have  men  of  God  who  dare,  without  fear,  to  proclaim 
the  whole  counsel  of  God.  With  such  a  leadership 
we  shall  also  have  men  who  are  able  to  aid  in  bring- 
ing mankind  out  of  the  psychopathic  state  in  which 
society  apparently  now  is,  by  a  sane  therapeutic,  not 
administered  by  churches  and  clergy,  but  through  the 
recognition  of  the  spiritual  elements  of  humanity  in 
the  working  out  of  their  physical  relations.  And 
underneath  and  continually  feeding  from  below  into 
the  social  cauldron,  there  must  come  a  race  of  reli- 
giously instructed  youth,  who  will  bring  sound  knowl- 
edge and  an  instructed  conscience  to  the  social  needs 
of  humanity.  In  this  triad  democracy,  health  and 
education,  apparently  lies  the  road  to  social  regenera- 
tion, at  least  to  the  beginning  of  that  regeneration 
which  Christianity  assumes  as  its  mission  to  bring 
about.  But  all  of  these  must  be  qualified,  instructed 
and  held  under  the  restraint  of  a  genuine  Christian- 
ity. And  Christianity  must  stand  over  all,  as  the 
enlightened  mother  of  human  nurture,  to  instruct,  to 


240    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

guide,  to  encourage  and  to  restrain.  These  functions 
it  is  the  high  privilege  of  the  Christian  clergy  to  exer- 
cise. But  to  exercise  them  they  must  be  free  from 
the  galling  humiliations  which  now  make  them  impo- 
tent for  the  greatest  of  all  tasks  which  the  Christian  re- 
ligion has  ever  faced.  But  though  often  submerged, 
Christianity  has  never  disappeared.  Though  often 
misrepresented,  it  has  always  ultimately  appeared  in 
its  true  aspects  and  affected  its  divine  work.  It  will 
do  so  again.  It  will  rear  once  more  a  race  of  moral 
and  spiritual  supermen  who  will  dare  to  grapple  with 
the  sin,  misery  and  want  of  the  world  and  will  brush 
aside  the  sophistries  by  which  men  delude  themselves 
and  with  the  sublime  power  of  the  Master  Himself 
will  once  again  assert  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread 
alone.  But  in  asserting  this  they  will  not  mean  that 
he  shall  trust  in  will-o'-the-wisps  of  social  doctrines 
that  lead  only  to  fresh  social  catastrophes.  They  will 
not  mean  that  men  shall  become  visionaries  who  know 
not  the  world  and  glory  in  their  ignorance.  But 
they  will  mean  that  man  made  in  the  image  of  God 
must  become  steadily  more  like  his  Maker.  They  will 
demand  justice  and  judgment  which  are  the  habita- 
tion of  God's  throne.  But  their  justice  will  be  in- 
exorable and  their  judgment  will  be  true.  They  will 
not  substitute  class  damnation  for  the  divine  decrees 
and  they  will  not  accept  the  ravings  of  fanatics, 
whether  religious,  social,  or  economic,  as  the  super- 
natural evidences  of  being  possessed  by  a  divine  spirit. 
They  will  demand  democracy  and  maintain  it.  They 
will  see  that  a  sound  democracy  cannot  subsist  except 


Israel  in  Bondage  241 

on  the  principle  of  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano.  They 
will  see  that  a  people  uninstructed  spiritually  is  a  peo- 
ple receding  from  virtue  and  social  power,  and  hence 
upon  this  triad,  democracy,  health  and  education,  they 
will  build  the  secure  structure  of  the  Christianity  of 
Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER  IX 
DEMOCRACY 


My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well  upon  this 
whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost  by  taking  time.  If 
there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of  you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step 
which  you  would  never  take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be 
frustrated  by  taking  time;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated 
by  it.  .  .  .  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity  and  a  firm  re- 
liance on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land, 
are  still  competent  to  adjust  in  the  best  way  all  our  difficulty. 
,  .  ,  We  are  not  enemies  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies. 
Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds 
of  affection.  The  mystic  cords  of  memory  stretching  from  every 
battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth- 
stone, all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the 
Union  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better 
angels  of  our  nature. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  First  Inaugural  Address. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DEMOCRACY 


CHRISTIANITY  assumes  as  one  of  its  primary 
postulates  the  possible  regeneration  of  human 
society.  This  appears  on  every  page  of  the  Gospels, 
and  is  apparent  to  the  most  casual  reader  of  Jesus' 
teachings  concerning  the  Kingdom  of  God.  There  is 
no  longer  any  need  for  discussing  this  phase  of  the 
relation  of  the  Christian  religion  to  the  social  order 
prevailing  in  any  state  of  society.  Whether  the 
method  chosen  be  by  the  personal  reformation  of 
the  individual  man  through  conversion  or  through  the 
Christianizing  of  the  great  social  agencies  by  which 
human  life  is  more  and  more  largely  being  directed 
and  controlled,  the  underlying  assumption  must  be 
that  the  end  to  be  achieved  is  a  society  as  regenerate 
as  the  individuals  that  compose  it.  Moreover,  this 
assumption  appeared  from  the  moment  the  Christian 
church  attained  any  consciousness  of  itself  as  a  part 
of  the  social  life  of  the  world.  Its  earliest  disciples 
not  only  saw  that  this  was  the  end  to  be  achieved  but 
took  immediate  steps  for  its  attainment.  With  such 
knowledge  as  they^had  and  with  such  instruments  as 

245 


246    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

they  could  command,  they  undertook  the  task  of  re- 
generating the  world. 

It  is  also  clear  that  the  very  largeness  of  this  under- 
taking spurred  them  on  to  extraordinary  activities, 
and  these  activities  in  turn  reacted  upon  them  to  such 
a  degree  that  they  not  only  undertook  to  regenerate 
the  world,  but  believed  that  it  might  be  accomplished 
within  their  own  time.  Frorii  the  period  of  the  im- 
mediate followers  of  Jesus  to  this  very  time  there  has 
never  been  wanting  a  considerable  number  of  Chris- 
tians who  have  believed  that  they  would  see  the  world 
made  over  into  the  actual  demonstration  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  It  is  true  that  this  has  usually  been 
allied  with  some  expectation  of  supernatural  inter- 
vention of  one  kind  or  another,  notably  with  the  re- 
turn of  Christ  to  rule  and  reign  in  the  world;  but 
whatever  the  particular  form  of  the  hope  it  has  always 
been  present  in  the  church  and  is  present  now.  Even 
when  it  has  not  been  openly  confessed  and  preached, 
this  lurking  expectation  of  the  final  visible  triumph  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  actual  rule  in  the  world  has  held 
a  large  place  in  the  Christian  thinking  of  men.  Even 
in  its  most  grotesque  forms  it  commands  a  certain 
measure  of  respect,  because  of  the  underlying  idea 
that  Christianity  assumes  that  the  world  both  can  be 
and  will  be  regenerated  and  made  coextensive  with 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Viewed  in  a  broad  sense,  the  course  of  history  has 
justified  the  hope  and  the  expectation.  Society  since 
the  advent  of  Christianity  has  been  and  is  steadily 
becoming  increasingly  moral.     There  is  no  evil   so 


Democracy  247 

great,  no  social  wrong  so  heartrending,  no  difficulty 
so  colossal,  that  it  can  for  a  moment  weigh  against 
the  historical  fact  that  Christianity  has  steadily  moved 
onward  in  human  society  and  has  forced  men  to  the 
conviction  which  is  its  own  primary  postulate.  Men 
whether  avowedly  enlisted  under  the  standard  of 
Christ  or  not  have  acquired  this  conviction  no  less 
than  Christians  who  first  gave  it  to  the  world.  One 
of  the  great  contrasts  with  which  Christianity  startled 
the  Roman  world  when  it  actually  began  its  world- 
wide propaganda  for  Jesus  Christ  was,  that  society 
could  and  must  be  made  Christian,  Over  against  the 
prevailing  skepticism  and  unbelief  in  the  salvability 
of  humanity  and  the  regeneration  of  human  relations, 
the  gospel  steadily  affirmed  and  demanded  both.  Be- 
ginning with  the  least  capable  members  of  the  Roman 
world  and  often  with  the  most  inert  morally,  it 
steadily  proclaimed  that  there  was  no  soul  without 
hope,  and  consequently  that  there  was  no  humanity  be- 
yond the  pale  of  the  final  triumph  of  Christ  in  the  world. 
The  faith  of  those  early  teachers  and  followers  has 
been  justified  in  the  event.  It  does  not  need  recapit- 
ulation in  detail  but  only  the  now  unchallengeable 
statement,  that  the  moral  order  of  the  world  has 
under  the  influence  of  Christian  teaching  and  preach- 
ing not  only  advanced  but  become  increasingly  sensi- 
tive to  the  moral  motive  in  both  individual  and  cor- 
porate action.  Christian  ideas  are  now  the  property 
and  heritage  of  all  men,  who  scarcely  dream  that 
there  could  have  been  a  time  when  they  were  not. 
Indeed,  the  multiplicity  of  social  programs  of  one 


248    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

kind  and  another  is  itself  evidence  of  the  almost  uni- 
versal belief  that  the  world  is  a  subject  of  redemption, 
and  that  the  redemption  may  possibly  be  accomplished 
within  the  lifetime  of  the  propagandists.  Confident 
assertions  are  made  on  every  hand  that  the  adoption 
of  this  or  that  plan  of  social  adjustment  will  bring 
about  justice  and  fair  dealing  in  the  world.  The 
advance  from  the  ideas  of  a  fair  distribution  of  the 
spoil  to  the  demand  for  justice  is  itself  one  of  the 
most  emphatic  evidences  of  the  moral  advance  of  men. 
If  it  be  asserted  that  this  advance  is  not  due  to  Chris- 
tianity, then  the  reply  may  be  made,  it  has  come 
coincidently  with  the  spread  of  Christian  ideas  and 
the  general  acceptance  of  the  Christian  idea  of  the 
value  of  human  life  and  human  relations.  It  is  not 
necessary  specially  to  quarrel  on  this  point.  Chris- 
tianity and  the  moral  advance  of  the  world  have  gone 
hand  in  hand  and,  whether  the  latter  is  the  result  of 
the  former  directly  or  not,  the  two  are  so  inseparable 
that  nobody  will  ever  be  able  to  say  that  we  should 
have  attained  the  state  to  which  we  have  emerged  had 
there  been  no  Christianity  to  affirm  the  possibility  and 
to  assist  in  the  regeneration  of  mankind.  What  may 
be  stated  without  any  risk  of  successful  denial  is, 
that  before  the  advent  of  Christianity  there  was  no 
such  hope  in  existence  and  almost  no  consciousness  of 
such  a  possibility  as  is  expressed  on  every  platform 
which  discusses  the  condition  of  the  world  to-day. 
This  is  the  greatest  service  which  Christianity  has  ren- 
dered to  the  world.  This  alone  makes  it  a  fixed  factor 
in  human  society. 


Democracy  249 

II 

B>  the  same  tokens  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the 
moral  order  of  society  is  inseparable  from  religion. 
The  expansion  of  religion  and  the  increase  in  the 
varieties  of  the  application  of  the  religious  motive  to 
human  affairs,  whether  these  be  social,  political,  or 
legal,  is  the  most  striking  fact  in  the  thought  of  the 
modern  world.  Many  of  the  leaders  of  the  various 
forms  of  social  propaganda  state  that  they  are  en- 
gaged in  religious  work.  To  many  of  them  the  par- 
ticular plan  which  they  have  is  in  a  very  real  sense  a 
religion.  The  writer  has  seen  one  of  the  venerable 
founders  of  a  great  labor  organization  stand  before 
a  crowd  of  thousands  and  hold  up  his  union  card  and 
say  with  great  impressiveness,  "  This  is  my  Bible." 
The  thought  underneath  that  statement  was  that  he 
held  his  social  program  as  a  religion,  as,  in  fact,  he 
did.  In  hundreds  of  meetings  of  almost  every  kind 
the  same  thing  can  be  seen,  and  has  been  seen  by  the 
writer.  In  fact,  so  common  has  this  become,  that, 
in  some  of  these  assemblies,  if  the  particular  local 
color  of  the  meetings  were  extracted  and  the  terminol- 
ogy of  the  particular  social  creed  held  by  the  assem- 
blies were  replaced  by  the  terms  distinctive  to  the 
Christian  religion,  they  would  pass  anywhere  as  Chris- 
tian meetings.  There  was  no  distinguishable  differ- 
ence in  the  end  and  aim  which  these  men  sought  to 
achieve  and  that  which  is  affirmed  on  every  occasion 
when  the  Christian  church  has  need  to  speak  on  social 
questions  of  any  character.     The  inseparableness  of 


250    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

religion  with  the  advancing  social  order  must  be  ap- 
parent to  everybody  who  has  given  even  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  matter. 

It  would  probably  surprise  a  great  many  of  these 
leaders  to  be  told  that  they  were  advocating  Christian- 
ity. But  not  a  few,  however,  have  arrived  at  the 
consciousness  of  the  identity  between  their  own  aim 
and  that  portrayed  by  Jesus  in  the  Gospels.  Where 
the  identity  is  recognized,  it  is  almost  always  accom- 
panied by  violent  onslaughts  on  the  Christian  church 
with  the  claim  that  the  church  has  ceased  to  be  Chris- 
tian. And  here  we  are  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
question  on  which  many  things  may  be  said  in  both 
directions.  For  the  present,  let  it  be  understood  that 
whether  the  Christian  church  has  or  has  not  ceased 
to  be  genuinely  Christian,  this  has  been  the  fact  in 
times  past  and  is  therefore  not  impossible.  But  the 
natural  alliance  of  religion  with  every  form  of  moral 
progress  and  the  completeness  of  the  identity  of  aim 
between  the  moral  aspirations  of  the  leaders  of  so- 
ciety and  the  teaching  of  Jesus  are  unquestionable. 
So  continuous  has  this  fact  been  through  the  Chris- 
tian centuries  that  it  may  be  said  that  the  two  are 
inseparable,  and  that,  without  religion  interpreting 
religion  in  its  broadest  sense,  there  can  be,  as  there 
has  been  in  the  past,  no  moral  progress  in  the  world. 

It  is  hardly  less  true  that  this  religionizing  of  social 
theories  is  a  part  of  the  work  of  Christianity  in  the 
democratization  of  the  world.  Christianity  is  democ- 
racy if  it  is  anything.  There  is  no  armory  which 
furnishes  more  weapons  for  the  teaching  of  democ- 


Democracy  251 

racy  than  the  Bible.  And  here,  again,  while  we  may 
not  say  dogmatically  that  the  expanding  democracy 
of  the  world  is  directly  due  to  Christianity,  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  the  immediate  effects  of  Chris- 
tianity are  such  as  to  produce  democracy  naturally  and 
spontaneously.  While  it  is  possible  to  conceive  of  a 
high  state  of  personal  religion  absolutely  apart  from 
any  form  of  institutional  organization,  it  is  also  true, 
historically,  that  where  there  has  been  any  consider- 
able religion  it  has  been  allied  to  some  form  of  insti- 
tutional life.  Christian  institutions  in  their  earliest 
form  were  the  expression  of  a  pure  democracy,  and 
that  idea  has  never  been  absent  from  the  thought  of 
the  church,  whatever  its  practise  may  have  been. 
The  Christian  church  could  not  read  its  own  sacred 
writings  and  utter  the  words  of  its  Founder  without 
teaching  a  democracy  as  absolute  and  far-reaching  as 
that  contemplated  in  the  most  advanced  social  pro- 
gram known.  In  fact,  every  Christian  assembly  the 
moment  it  utters  the  most  elementary  form  of  Chris- 
tian teaching  begins  to  teach  democracy.  For  this 
reason  the  churches  have  been  schools  of  democracy 
from  the  times  of  the  apostles.  If  democracy  has  a 
natural  atmosphere  anywhere,  that  atmosphere  is  in 
the  church.  This,  again,  is  not  merely  the  plain 
teaching  of  the  Gospels,  but  it  is  also  the  undeniable 
teaching  of  Christian  history. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  conjecture  how  democracy 
could  have  made  the  advances  which  it  has  made  in 
the  world  without  the  cooperation  of  the  Christian 
church.     The    one    thing   needful    for    a    successful 


252    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

democracy  is  a  clearing  house  which  will  bring  all 
ideas  to  the  test  of  some  fundamental  law  which  shall 
be  the  acid  test  distinguishing  genuine  from  spurious 
democracy.  The  Christian  church  is  the  only  known 
organization  in  the  world  which  has  such  an  acid 
test  for  genuine  democratic  ideas.  Its  doctrines  of 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man, 
which  it  has  always  held  and  holds  now,  whatever  its 
practise  may  have  been  or  is  now,  are  the  final  tests 
of  genuine  democracy.  They  have  always  been  the 
rallying  cries  for  social  advance;  and  the  one  social 
institution  which  has  uttered  them  repeatedly  and 
unceasingly,  in  fair  days  and  foul  days  alike,  has  been 
the  church  of  Jesus  Christ.  Democracy  needs,  and 
always  will  need,  just  such  a  clearing  house  for  the 
various  forms  of  democracy  which  are  presented  for 
general  adoption.  The  Christian  church  is  naturally 
adapted  to  be  such  a  clearing  house,  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  constitutionally  it  is  bound  hand  and  foot 
to  the  fundamental  ideas  by  which  alone  democracy 
can  be  comprehended.  A  democracy  which  does  not 
rest  upon  such  conceptions  as  are  the  basis  of  Jesus' 
teaching  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  political  illusion 
which  will  go  the  way  of  all  illusions.  But,  based 
upon  the  fundamental  ideas  which  Christ  affirmed  and 
which  His  disciples  have  been  automatically  forced 
to  preach  as  the  necessary  f>ostulates  of  Christian 
propaganda,  democracy  is  not  only  firmly  grounded, 
but  offers  the  natural  pathway  for  the  progressive 
steps  needful  for  socializing  and  redeeming  mankind. 
The    weakness    of    democracy   has    always   been    its 


Democracy  253 

institutional  inefficiency.  The  Christian  church  is 
adapted  by  its  constitution,  by  its  elementary  doc- 
trines, and  by  its  history,  to  give  democracy  the  work- 
ing model  of  institutional  efficiency  upon  the  only 
principles  by  which  we  can  democratize  the  world. 

It  is  sometimes  affirmed  that  the  Christian  church 
is  particularly  assailable  on  this  very  point.  But  all 
such  accusations  seem,  when  critically  examined,  to 
be  based  upon  very  limited  observation.  There  is  at 
this  very  moment  no  institution  in  the  world  which 
has  a  vital  relation  to  humanity,  which  exhibits  such 
institutional  effectiveness  as  the  Christian  church, 
even  when  most  of  the  common  accusations  against 
it  have  all  been  admitted.  Viewed  on  the  world  scale, 
including  the  vast  foreign  missionary  enterprises  of 
the  various  branches  of  the  church  universal,  it  is  the 
most  colossal  social  propaganda  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  and  embraces  every  possible  form  of  social  serv- 
ice and  method.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  state  a 
single  area  of  human  interest  into  which  the  Christian 
church  has  not  at  some  time  pushed  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  out  its  fundamental  ideas  of  democracy. 
It  could  not  do  otherwise  and  be  Christianity.  Not 
to  do  this  would  be  to  deny  itself.  Nor  have  in- 
stances been  wanting  illustrating  this  very  fact. 
When  the  revival  of  world-wide  evangelism  arose  in 
America  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  the  mission- 
aries were  sent  out  with  a  purely  theological  idea  of 
Christianity.  The  idea  was  to  evangelize  the  world 
by  means  of  ^  particular  kind  of  Christian  teaching. 
Confronted  with  the  facts  and  forces  of  alien  civiliza- 


254    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

tions,  Christianity  was  compelled  to  adjust  itself  to 
the  elementary  demands  of  the  gospel,  with  the  result 
that  the  theological  Christianity  which  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century  undertook  to  save  the 
non-Christian  nations  has  become  a  social  Christianity 
addressing  itself  to  the  immediate  needs  of  men  in 
their  social  and  institutional  life.  The  result  every- 
where has  been  the  indoctrination  of  the  oldest  em- 
pires of  the  world  with  the  ideas  of  democracy  and 
the  expansion  of  the  practise  of  Christianity,  so  that 
now  it  embraces  every  possible  form  of  social  activity. 
The  vitality  of  the  Christian  religion  and  its  essential 
and  inevitable  democratic  character  have  thus  been 
demonstrated  on  every  missionary  field  of  the  world. 
This  has  not  come  about  by  accident.  It  came 
because  Christianity  is  democracy;  and  when  Chris- 
tianity ceases  to  be  in  a  vital  and  effective  sense  dem- 
ocratic, it  ceases  to  be  Christianity.  And  it  is  effective 
democracy  too.  It  is  the  one  form  of  democracy 
which  has  no  limitation  of  race  or  previous  condition. 
It  is  the  one  form  of  democracy  which  grafts  itself 
naturally  and  efficiently  upon  every  form  of  civiliza- 
tion and  culture. 

There  is  an  additional  reason  for  this,  apart  from 
its  fundamental  constitution.  Christianity  m,ust  be 
an  efficient  democracy  in  order  to  be  any  kind  of  a 
democracy.  And  its  efficiency  is  assured  because 
there  is  no  domain  of  human  life  to  which  it  has  not 
a  real  and  necessary  relation.  It  thus  provides  at 
once  for  the  utilization  of  every  form  of  talent,  for 
the  expression  of  every  kind  of  need,  and  the  devel- 


Democracy  255 

opment  of  every  form  of  resource  for  meeting  the 
needs  expressed.  It  is,  moreover,  in  a  continual  state 
of  readjustment,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  its  reserves 
are  always  coming  forward  with  fresh  capabilities  to 
be  expended  and  a  wider  theory  of  the  application  of 
its  fundamental  doctrines.  There  is  no  other  social 
institution  known  that  thus,  by  its  nature,  couples 
itself  with  almost  any  conceivable  situation.  It  is 
literally  all  things  to  all  men.  It  must  be,  to  be  any- 
thing to  any  man.  And  these  fundamental  elements 
of  its  nature  are  always  reacting  upon  each  other. 
Christianity  has  thus  within  itself  the  capacity  for 
continuous  rebirth,  stating  itself  in  the  form  best 
adapted  to  the  particular  field  in  which  it  is  operating. 
By  this  means  it  provides  the  laboratory  for  many 
things  beside  itself,  because  its  nature  requires  it  to 
prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  what  is  good.  Here 
again  history  is  suggestive,  in  that  it  shows  that  there 
is  no  social  program  extant  that  has  not,  in  some  form 
or  other,  been  tried,  at  least  within  some  limited  area, 
under  Christian  auspices  and  under  Christian  inspira- 
tion. 

Ill 

Christianity  then  as  a  religion,  and  the  Christian 
church  as  the  institutional  expression  of  that  religion, 
becomes  democracy's  most  potent  and  effective  instru- 
ments for  its  development  and  the  corrective  for  its 
blunders.  The  very  differences  of  Christian  organi- 
zation have  contributed  to  this  result,  because  com- 
plete   functioning    in    a    democracy    requires    many 


256    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

varieties  of  tools.  The  Christian  church  is  the  one 
instrument  which  will  respond  to  every  need,  because 
it  sets  up  no  fixed  standard  other  than  those  which 
are  fundamental  to  the  democratic  idea.  The  em- 
phasis in  one  part  of  the  world  or  in  one  portion  of 
society  may  be  one  thing,  the  emphasis  in  another 
something  different,  according  to  the  state  of  devel- 
opment in  that  particular  branch  of  society  or  portion 
of  the  world.  The  Christian  church  operates  in  them 
all.  It  must,  as  stated,  affirm  democracy  in  them  all, 
in  order  to  be  itself.  The  inevitable  outcome  of  this 
must  be  that,  finally,  there  will  be  a  common  tongue 
which  they  all  speak  and  a  common  platform  on  which 
they  can  all  stand.  This  is  the  greatest  outstanding 
fact  in  the  social  history  of  the  world.  Nor  is  it 
necessary  to  deny  that  sometimes  this  has  not  been 
the  case  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  the  various 
types  of  Christianity  recognize  their  common  destiny. 
To  state  this,  is  simply  to  say  that  in  a  long  road  many 
people  do  not  know  who  are  in  front  of  them  and 
who  are  behind  them.  History  is  a  long  road.  The 
world  is  wide.  Many  believe  themselves  alone  who 
are  not  alone  at  all.  And  in  the  turns  of  the  road, 
as  on  the  winding  tracks  of  mountain  railways,  the 
train  which  seems  to  be  going  backward  is  really 
going  forward.  The  history  of  the  Christian  church 
is  full  of  such  apparent  recessions.  But  so  is  the 
world.  Yet  the  long  view  through  the  centuries  must 
convince  the  candid  thinker  that  it  has  been  Chris- 
tianity as  religion,  and  the  Christian  church  as  the 
institutional  embodiment  of  that  religion,  which  have 


Democracy  257 

made  the  fragments  of  democracy  throughout  the 
world  intelHgible  to  each  other  as  parts  of  a  growing 
whole  presently  to  be  revealed.  When  any  part  of 
this  world-wide  fellowship  has  failed  to  function 
properly  to  this  great  end,  it  has  almost  always  been 
assailed  angrily  from  both  without  and  within.  The 
world  without  the  church,  and  the  world  within  the 
church,  alike  have  at  such  times  forced  Giristianity 
to  face  its  fundamental  documents  and  the  practise 
of  its  Founder,  and  together  they  have  usually  secured 
the  desired  result  of  restoration  to  fundamental  ideas. 
This  may  be  safely  contended,  no  matter  what  form 
the  church  has  taken  or  what  its  excesses  have  been. 

In  a  certain  sense  this  has  made  the  church  the 
moral  barometer  of  society.  This  does  not  mean  that 
it  has  had,  nor  that  it  has  now,  the  highest  types  of 
Christianity  within  its  own  numbers,  though  it  is 
reasonably  safe  to  assume  that  the  finest  expressions 
of  Christianity  are  found  within  the  Christian  church. 
But  it  is  saying  that,  on  the  whole,  the  attitude  of  the 
natural  constituency  of  the  Christian  church  has  re- 
vealed the  moral  height  or  depth  of  society.  When 
the  church  has  been  corrupt,  society  has  been  corrupt. 
When  the  church  has  been  pure,  holy,  and  vital,  so- 
ciety has  exhibited  these  same  qualities,  so  that  the 
state  of  the  church  generally  reveals  what  the  prevail- 
ing social  ideals  are. 

The  relation  of  the  church  to  the  total  democratic 
movement  may  therefore  be  described  as  friendly 
relations  with  all  social  programs  and  entangling 
alliances  with  none.     And  both  phases  of  this  relation 


258    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

are  inevitable.  If  Christianity  ever  should  become 
inseparably  allied  or  identified  other  than  in  the  ulti- 
mate aim  with  any  social  program,  its  life  and  influ- 
ence would  be  limited  by  the  life  and  availability  of 
the  particular  program  which  it  espoused.  By  its 
nature  it  cannot  do  this,  since  its  constitutional  doc- 
trines cannot  be  thus  limited.  The  Fatherhood  of 
God  is  not  a  social  program.  It  is  a  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  regenerate  men.  The  Brotherhood  of  Man 
is  not  a  social  program.  It  is  the  life  of  regenerate 
men.  It  is  a  principle  of  approach  capable  of  infinite 
varieties  of  expression.  It  may  mean  war  or  it  may 
mean  peace.  It  may  mean  electrocution  or  pardon. 
It  may  mean  municipal  ownership  or  it  may  mean 
competition.  Whether  it  means  the  one  or  the  other, 
depends  upon  a  great  many  conditions  which  are 
themselves  pendent  upon  influences  some  of  which  are 
fixed  and  others  of  which  are  constantly  changing. 
The  brotherhood  of  man  may  mean  the  wage  system 
or  it  may  not.  It  would  be  absurd  and  obviously 
absurd  to  hold  that  man  could  not  believe  in  the  wage 
system  and  at  the  same  time  believe  and  practise  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  But  Christianity  cannot  pos- 
sibly avoid  facing  the  question  whether  any  system 
at  a  given  time  appears  to  embody  its  cardinal  doc- 
trines. Neither  can  the  church  avoid  noticing  and 
declaring  what  appear  to  be  the  human  values  in  terms 
of  brotherhood  of  any  given  system  in  which  it 
operates.  The  simple  truth  is,  that  it  has  always  done 
so,  and  is  doing  so  at  the  present  moment.  In  this 
sense  Christianity  is  always  facing  a  social  crisis,  be- 


Democracy  259 

cause  Christianity  is  always  at  war  with  an  unregen- 
erate  world,  and  always  at  variance  with  a  program 
which  indicates  any  inequalities  which  do  not  express 
its  consciousness  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  But  it 
cannot  be  limited  to  any  statement  of  social  reform 
and  cannot  be  bound  to  any  platform  of  social  prin- 
ciples wider  or  deeper  than  those  which  are  inherent 
in  its  very  life.  Thus  democracy  and  the  church  are 
natural  allies  and  must  ever  be  so.  There  is  good 
reason  for  the  statement  that  this  has  always  been 
the  case  even  when  the  outward  terms  of  the  church 
life  have  been  in  a  form  which  did  not  seem  to  be 
indicative  of  the  democratic  content  of  the  religion 
for  which  it  stood. 

IV 

There  is  still  another  phase  of  the  relation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  church,  its  representative  institution, 
to  democracy  which  is  worthy  of  careful  notice. 
This  is  the  question  of  liberty.  Democracy  must 
mean  liberty  if  it  means  anything.  But  liberty  is 
itself  a  very  spiritual  thing,  and  rests  upon  qualities 
which  are,  if  not  religious,  so  nearly  religious,  that 
it  would  be  very  difficult  to  make  the  distinction  per- 
fectly clear.  The  liberty  which  is  necessary  for  the 
widest  expression  of  the  social  hope  of  mankind  can 
be  found  under  the  constitution  of  Christianity,  but 
hardly  anywhere  else,  and  reveals  again  the  futility 
of  trying  to  limit  Christianity  to  any  particular  social 
plan.  The  recent  national  convention  of  the  Socialist 
party  illustrated  this  point  with  great  vividness.     A 


26o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

very  considerable  minority  of  that  convention  were 
syndicalists  and  wished  to  embody  the  special  dogma 
of  syndicalism  in  the  platform  of  the  party,  which  led 
to  a  fiery  interchange  of  opinions  as  to  genuine  and 
spurious  socialism.  Now  of  course  this  does  not 
prove  anything,  about  either  socialism  or  the  par- 
ticular form  of  it  called  syndicalism.  But  it  does 
indicate  that  the  moment  the  broad  substantial  plat- 
form is  left  for  the  narrower  declaration  of  special 
interest,  you  have  instantaneous  disruption  and  di- 
vision of  forces.  Christianity  has  been  divided  and 
subdivided  world  without  end.  But  the  interesting 
fact  is  that  it  has  never  been  subdivided  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  nor  of  the  Brotherhood 
of  Man.  It  has  quarreled  about  many  things,  and 
usually  such  quarrels  have  been  disgraceful  affairs. 
This  is  true  even  to  the  present  day.  But  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that  no  such  division  could  possibly  have  taken 
place  except  in  the  obscuration  of  its  fundamental 
ideas;  and  it  is  again  historically  true,  that  the  return 
to  unity  has  always  been  by  an  irenicon  based  upon 
the  fundamental  ideas  which  Jesus  taught, —  tolerance 
and  liberty,  especially  liberty.  A  similar  scene  was 
enacted  at  a  more  recent  meeting  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  at  Buffalo.  Here  again  the 
division  was  so  acute  that  the  members  assaulted  one 
another,  and  the  police  had  to  be  called  in.  This  is 
not  unknown  in  the  history  of  Christian  churches. 
But  it  again  emphasizes  the  futihty  of  limiting  men 
of  like  minds  to  particularities  of  program.  Still 
later,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Joseph  Fels  Fund  Commis- 


Democracy  261 

sion  for  the  propagation  of  the  Single  Tax  doctrine 
in  Boston,  an  outbreak  occurred  almost  exactly  anal- 
ogous to  the  other  two.  The  founder  and  chief  con- 
tributor to  the  Fund  objected  to  the  form  in  which 
local  devotees  were  experimenting,  and  made  a  per- 
sonal attack  upon  one  of  the  most  devoted  members 
of  the  cult.  Immediately  there  was  uproar  and  con- 
fusion, while  later  other  differences  appeared  as  be- 
tween those  single  taxers  who  were  individualists  and 
those  who  were  socialists.  Now,  as  before,  this 
argues  nothing  as  to  the  validity  of  the  single-tax 
doctrine.  But  it  does  show  that  harnessing  men  to  a 
limited  program  generally  means  the  destruction  of 
liberty.  It  is  also  indicative  of  the  fact  that  presently 
there  will  be  division  in  the  ranks  of  these  various 
bodies,  which  will  be  only  repeating  what  is  the  out- 
standing fact  about  Christianity  to-day,  with  this 
important  exception,  that  on  its  fundamental  ideas 
Christianity  is  not  now  and  never  has  been  divided. 
It  is  entirely  within  the  possibilities  that  all  these 
brethren  might  work  harmoniously  and  effectively 
within  and  under  the  aegis  of  the  Christian  church. 
In  fact,  many  of  the  most  ardent  Socialists  are  also 
Christians, —  so  much  so,  that  there  is  a  distinct 
branch  of  that  comradeship  which  calls  itself  Chris- 
tian Socialists.  There  might  conceivably  be  a  similar 
branch  of  single  taxers  who  called  themselves  Chris- 
tian Single  Taxers.  And  so  on  down  the  line.  In 
fact,  the  liberty  which  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  the 
fullest  exposition  and  discussion  of  all  these  various 
ideas  for  social  amelioration  can  be  found  only  within 


262    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  Christian  church,  strange  as  this  notion  will  sound 
to  many  of  these  advocates.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  most  effective  teaching  of  the  valid  parts  of 
socialism  is  now  being  done  in  the  churches.  The 
social  nature  of  Christianity  permits  it.  It  does 
more, —  it  invites  it.  But  what  the  social  nature  of 
Christianity  also,  by  its  democratic  content,  demands, 
is  that  Christianity  never  shall  be  limited  to  socialism, 
and  socialism  only.  It  is  not  outside  the  bounds  of 
possibility  that  in  a  given  community  the  single-tax 
question  might  become  a  religious  issue.  The  local 
church  might  conceivably  become  committed  to  it  as 
religiously  expedient  and  wise.  But  no  Christian 
church  which  was  truly  Christian,  and  therefore  also 
truly  democratic,  could  define  Christianity  in  terms 
of  single  tax.  The  very  statement  of  the  supposition 
reveals  its  absurdity;  and  yet  the  whole  weight  of 
Christian  influence  might  point  to  that  system  as  most 
effective,  under  the  time  and  circumstances,  for  affirm- 
ing and  demonstrating  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
Only  the  democracy  which  affirmed,  obedient  to  the 
inclusive  character  of  its  constitution,  the  duty  to 
stand  by  the  best  possible  expression  of  brotherhood, 
supposing  the  single  tax  for  the  moment  to  be  that 
expression,  would  at  the  same  time  affirm  the  liberty 
of  any  dissenter  for  holding  a  view  exactly  the  oppo- 
site. Not  to  do  so  would  be  to  become  the  ally  of  a 
tyranny. 

Social  and  individual  liberty  are  thus  bound  up  in 
the  idea  of  a  Christianized  democracy,  and  are  safe 
in  no  other.     It  will  come  to  many  as  a  new  and  a 


Democracy  263 

strange  idea  that  the  Christian  church  is  the  custodian 
of  Hberty,  but  the  logic  of  the  situation  is  pretty  clear. 
One  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  this  function  of  Chris- 
tianity is  that  the  Christian  churches  very  generally 
in  democratic  countries  have  insisted  upon  the  dises- 
tablishment of  particular  churches,  not  so  much  for 
the  protection  of  themselves  against  other  branches 
of  the  Christian  church,  but  because  they  feared 
tyranny  and  feared  most  a  tyranny  that  called  itself 
Christianity.  It  would  not  be  an  unheard-of  thing 
if  the  very  church  itself  should  have  the  final  voice  in 
protecting  many  of  those  who,  dealing  with  revolu- 
tionary ideas,  found  themselves  expelled  from  every 
other  association  bujt  that  of  the  church.  The  church 
is  the  natural  asylum  from  persecution  for  all  social 
revolutionaries  by  reason  of  its  teachings  and  the  ex- 
ample of  its  Founder.  A  democracy  that  is  genuine, 
and  not  itself  a  form  of  tyranny,  must  coincide  with 
the  fundamental  law  of  Christ.  This  has  already 
appeared  in  many  other  things  beside  the  political  agi- 
tations. It  has  shown  itself  in  education  and  medi- 
cine and  law  as  well  as  in  politics.  But  the  striking 
fact  everywhere  has  been  that  when  Christianity  has 
held  sway  and  has  held  to  its  own  fundamental  law, 
it  has  been  the  natural  progenitor  and  custodian  of 
democracy. 


CHAPTER  X 
HEALTH 


Men's  thoughts  and  opinions  are  in  a  great  degree  the  vassals 
of  him  who  invents  a  new  phrase  or  reapplies  an  old  one.  The 
thought  or  feeling  a  thousand  times  repeated,  becomes  his  at 
last  who  utters  it  best.  ...  As  soon  as  we  have  discovered  the 
word  for  our  joy  or  our  sorrow  we  are  no  longer  its  serfs  but 
its  lords.  We  reward  the  discoverer  of  an  anaesthetic  for  the 
body  and  make  him  a  member  of  all  the  societies,  but  him  who 
Unds  a  nepenthe  for  the  soul  we  elect  into  the  small  Academy 
of  the  Immortals. 

Lowell. 


CHAPTER  X 

HEALTH 


AMONG  the  most  remarkable  manifestations  of 
the  larger  applications  of  religion  in  our  times 
is  its  invasion  of  the  field  of  therapeutics.  Not  that 
there  has  not  always  been  a  subconscious  relation 
between  religion  and  medical  practise,  but  that,  until 
lately,  it  had  not  attained  the  distinct  consciousness 
of  itself  or  attempted  to  define  those  relations  as  it  is 
doing  with  increasing  emphasis  to-day.  It  is  not  an 
extravagant  estimate  to  say  that  this  emphasis  will 
increase  as  time  goes  on.  In  a  certain  sense,  the  re- 
lation will  become  more  and  more  accentuated  and 
lead  to  very  considerable  modifications  of  medical 
practise,  as,  in  some  quarters  of  the  world,  it  has 
already. 

But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  this 
is  a  new  thing  or  one  that  ought  to  excite  a  great  deal 
of  surprise.  It  is  merely  when  historically  examined 
the  resumption  of  a  very  old  relation  and  one  that 
came  most  naturally  and  almost  inevitably  with  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  the  world.  But 
even  long  before  Christianity  appeared,  in  the  ruder 
forms  of  social  life,  the  medicine  man  and  the  priest 


268    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

were  one  and  the  same  person.  In  some  of  the  forms 
of  primitive  life,  which,  in  remote  quarters  of  the 
world,  still  remain,  the  functions  of  medical  practi- 
tioner and  minister  of  religion  still  reside  in  the  same 
individual  and  are  practised  as  the  normal  domain  of 
the  religious  teacher.  To  what  may  relatively  be 
considered  a  late  period  of  civilization,  this  alliance  of 
therapeutics  with  religion  still  continued,  though  it 
generally  took  forms  which  we  are  now  pleased  to 
call  superstition. 

Considering  the  question,  however,  within  the  pe- 
riod called  Christendom,  even  into  the  period  when 
there  emerged  what  we  now  call  science,  and  even  to 
the  present  day,  that  hereditary  connection  between 
medical  service  and  religion  has  never  quite  disap- 
peared. Though  subjected  in  the  more  recent  years 
to  every  form  of  ridicule  and  shown  to  be  scientifically 
worthless  and  often  distinctly  harmful  to  both  body 
and  soul,  the  belief  has  continued  that  there  was 
somewhere  a  definite  relation  between  the  thing  which 
a  man  calls  his  religion  and  the  welfare  of  his  body. 
Nor  is  it  at  all  strange  that  this  should  be  the  case. 
Here  again  we  are  faced  with  the  fact  that  Christian- 
ity brought  to  the  world  a  very  distinct  conception  of 
the  value  and  influence  of  bodily  relations  and 
states  upon  spiritual  conditions  and  expectations. 
The  Hebraic  origin  of  Christianity  made  it  inevitable 
that  the  Christian  church  should  have  a  very  large 
consciousness  on  this  particular  subject.  The  earliest 
Christians  were  Hebrews,  and  the  Hebrew  literature 
on  this  subject  is  so  full,  so  minute,  and  affects  so 


Health  269 

directly  so  many  things  which  act  immediately  upon 
the  physical  conditions  of  men,  and  is  withal  so  accu- 
rate, especially  on  the  side  of  symptoms,  that  it  is 
held  in  the  highest  repute  by  medical  science  of  the 
most  advanced  kind  to-day.  Indeed,  it  is  among  the 
most  likely  things  that  we  shall  see  in  the  not  too 
distant  future  that  the  sanitary  codes  of  the  Hebrews, 
found  in  the  so-called  Mosaic  books,  will  be  studied 
with  even  greater  care  than  they  already  have  been. 
One  thing  is  very  certain,  and  that  is,  that  if  a  modern 
city  block  were  subjected  to  the  severe  regimen  of  the 
Hebrew  codes  seven-tenths  of  the  troubles  in  them 
would  disappear.  Not  only  did  the  Hebrews  legis- 
late for  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  the  relations  of 
parents  and  children,  of  special  groups  to  each  other, 
but  in  a  thousand  ways,  too  minute  for  detailed  de- 
scription here,  made  their  religion  govern  almost  the 
very  breath  that  its  adherents  took  into  their  lungs. 
Ablutions,  dress,  food,  sexual  relations,  childbirth, 
dietary,  and  almost  every  other  form  of  what  we 
should  now  regard  as  the  special  field  of  medical 
supervision  were  not  only  controlled,  but  highly  or- 
ganized,—  so  highly,  that  it  remains  a  wonderful 
thing  to  this  day,  and  many  of  its  precepts,  as  already 
stated,  have  the  sanction  of  expert  medical  authorities. 
Religion  and  medicine  were  one,  not  so  much  through 
the  practise  of  medicine  as  through  the  sanitary  reg- 
ulation which  made  the  religion  of  the  devotee  his 
physical  salvation.  It  broke  down  in  the  presence  of 
plagues  and  other  scourges  which  it  did  not  under- 
stand, of  course.     It  was  not  science,  of  course,  unless 


270    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

that  term  be  extended  to  include  this  kind  of  control. 
But  it  affirmed^  so  absolutely  the  necessary  relation  be- 
tween the  religion  of  the  people  and  their  bodily  wel- 
fare, that  it  remains  to  this  day. 

This  conception  Christianity  inherited.  There  is 
no  doubt  whatever  that  the  most  complicating  problem 
which  Qiristianity  faced  in  its  earliest  history  was 
one  which  grew  out  of  this  very  matter.  What  should 
be  done  with  the  Gentile  believers  who  had  not  been 
reared  in  the  sanitary  codes  of  the  Hebrews  was  a 
very  vital  matter,  and  caused  the  earliest  schism  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Christian  community.  It  was  the 
subject  of  fierce  contention  among  the  apostles,  and 
was  settled  only  by  the  appeal  to  the  fundamental 
law  of  Christian  liberty,  a  signal  illustration  of  the 
principle  which  we  have  laid  down  in  the  previous 
chapter.  It  was  desirable  of  course  to  have  the  future 
church  of  Christ  as  able,  physically  as  pure,  and  as 
cleanly  as  the  ideal  Hebrew  was  supposed  to  be.  But 
desirable  as  these  things  were,  and  soundly  established 
as  they  were  in  the  theory  and  practise  of  Jews,  they 
could  not  be  imposed  upon  the  Gentile  Christians,  be- 
cause they  were  not  a  part  of  the  fundamental  law 
upon  which  Christianity  alone  sought  to  appeal  to  the 
world  for  its  salvation. 

In  fact,  precisely  the  contrary  happened,  which 
shows  at  once  the  nature  of  the  motivation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  its  prompt  and  definite  acceptance  of  the 
practical  problems  with  which  it  was  confronted. 
There  happened  just  what  has  occurred  on  our  mis- 
sionary fields  in  recent  times.     Paganism  was  sub- 


Health  271 

merged  in  general  debauchery.  Not  only  were  there 
no  adequate  restraints  upon  men,  but  the  human  body 
was  not  regarded  in  any  manner  which  made  the  ap- 
peal to  self-preservation  in  the  slightest  degree  avail- 
able. Christianity  met  the  situation  by  declaring  that 
the  body  is  the  "  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  This 
was  a  new  phase  and  a  totally  fresh  idea  to  the  de- 
bauched and  decadent  pagan  mind,  and  by  its  asser- 
tion on  this  point,  Christianity  became  the  instrument 
for  social  regeneration  almost  instantaneously,  and 
that  by  the  simple  assertion  of  the  spiritual  nature  of 
man.  But  even  more  than  this  occurred.  The  Chris- 
tians, seeing  the  prevailing  license  all  about  them, 
asserted  their  principle  of  the  spiritual  character  of 
the  body  as  the  habitation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  such 
a  degree,  and  with  such  emphasis,  that  it  actually  led 
to  a  reaction  which  undertook  to  make  asceticism  a 
special  form  of  Christian  virtue.  Even  in  the  New 
Testament,  marriage  was  held  to  be  a  lower  form  of 
spirituality  than  celibacy,  and  great  numbers  of  men 
and  women  hastened  to  enroll  themselves  in  brother- 
hoods and  sisterhoods  organized  for  this  purpose. 
The  history  of  this  movement  forms  one  of  the  most 
impressive  chapters  in  the  development  of  Christen- 
dom. But  its  origin  lies  directly  in  the  conception 
that  there  is  a  relation  between  religion  and  the  care, 
nurture,  and  control  of  the  human  body.  And  this 
relation  has  never  been  lost  sight  of  in  the  history 
and  practise  of  the  Christian  church.  It  has  made 
the  material  for  some  of  the  brightest  and  also  some 
of  the  most  sinister  pages  of  Christian  history. 


272    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

II 

It  would  be  folly  to  suppose  that  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian teachers,  indurated  as  they  were  with  the  Hebrew 
teachings  on  the  subject  of  bodily  care,  with  its  at- 
tendant rites  and  observances  and  its  exacting  de- 
mands as  to  diet,  sex  relations,  and  sanitary  procedure, 
did  not  see  that  universal  celibacy  would  mean  the 
extinction  of  the  race.  But  characteristically  they 
faced  a  problem,  which,  as  appears  even  from  the 
pages  of  the  New  Testament,  was  so  important  to 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  church  that  they  had  to  take 
decisive  measures.  Hence  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
lean  backward  in  their  determination  to  fight  what 
they  saw,  with  horror  and  dismay,  made  spiritual  reli- 
gion and  social  salvation  impossible.  But  it  would  be 
equal  folly  to  assume  that  they  did  not  see  here  cer- 
tain interests  which  had  to  do  both  with  the  future  of 
the  church  and  the  happiness  and  usefulness  of  the 
believers,  which  must  be  made  the  subject  of  discus- 
sion and  reflection.  The  practical  aspects  of  the  mat- 
ter are  fully  discussed  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
have  formed  the  terminus  a  quo  of  the  discussions  in 
the  Christian  church  ever  since. 

But,  even  aside  from  all  this,  there  were  the  sacred 
writings  and  the  practise  of  the  Founder.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  hold  any  particular  theory  of  the  healing 
work  of  Christ  to  state  that  he  was  a  healer,  and  that 
this  portion  of  his  ministry  was  so  large  a  portion  of 
it  that  no  conception  of  his  work  in  the  world  can 
ignore  it.     Whether  it  was  of  a  supernatural  charac- 


Health  273 

ter,  or  whether  it  was  the  utiHzation  by  him  of  nat- 
ural laws  unknown  to  his  contemporaries,  or  whether 
it  was  through  psychic  influences  not  yet  fully  under- 
stood, the  facts  are  undeniable.  The  tradition  of 
Jesus  must  include  his  healing  work  as  a  large  and 
effective  portion  of  his  ministry.  It  is  impossible  to 
separate  Jesus  the  Healer  from  Jesus  the  Teacher, 
He  must  have  been  both,  and  this  one  fact  is  large 
enough  and  pregnant  enough  with  significance  to 
make  some  sort  of  a  relation  between  the  religion 
which  he  founded  and  the  physical  well-being  of  be- 
lievers, a  permanent  element  in  Christian  thought. 
Nor  has  any  modern  science  been  able  to  shake  this 
consciousness  very  much,  though  it  has  driven  the 
expression  of  it  into  the  dark  corners  and  among  the 
dernier  resources  of  Christian  necessity.  But  prayer 
for  the  sick,  however  explained,  has  always  been  made 
and  is  made  now.  When  all  other  means  have  been 
exhausted,  the  appeal  to  God  for  help  has  not  been 
wanting. 

That  this  should  bring  about,  almost  of  necessity, 
a  perpetual  conflict  between  medical  science  and  the 
teachers  of  religion  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  teachers  of  religion  saw  one  of  their 
means  of  power  and  influence  being  taken  away  from 
them.  It  is  not  surprising  that  they  did  not  willingly 
see  themselves  sui>erseded  in  a  field  in  which  they  had 
long  held  a  monopoly.  On  the  other  hand,  the  lead- 
ers of  science  were  men  who  loved  to  display  their 
independence  of  what  they  felt  to  be  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  and  superstition,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  make 


274    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

demonstrations  which  might  easily  have  been  identi- 
fied with  moral  anarchy.  That  their  doctrines  were 
revolutionary  is  not  to  be  denied.  The  world  is  grate- 
ful to  them  for  being  revolutionaries  even  to  the 
scaffold  and  the  stake.  But  it  should  not  strike  the 
modern  student  as  strange  that  they  should  have  been 
regarded  with  anxiety  and  fear  by  those  who  saw  the 
authority  of  religion  threatened,  and  themselves  cast 
away  as  custodians  of  the  spiritual  well-being  of  hu- 
manity. There  are  innumerable  parallels  to  this  in 
other  fields  of  human  action,  and  religion  has  no 
particular  monopoly  of  persecution  of  what  is  new 
and  strange.  Medical  annals  and  legal  lore  furnish 
all  the  evidence  necessary  to  show  that  human  nature 
is  essentially  the  same,  whether  it  operates  in  law, 
medicine,  or  religion. 

But  the  main  fact  is  not  altered,  that  such  a  relation 
as  the  one  indicated  was  not  only  declared,  but  that 
time  proved  that  the  relation  was  real  and  vital.  This 
is  the  important  truth  to  be  kept  in  mind.  The  Chris- 
tian adaptation  of  the  Hebrew  doctrine  was  of  the 
kind  which  would  distinguish  the  difference  between 
the  application  of  the  same  law  under  a  theocracy 
and  a  democracy.  When  Christianity  affirmed  the 
holiness  of  the  body,  and  when  it  designated  the 
Christian  church  as  the  "  body  "of  Christ,  it  made  a 
confluence  of  ideas  which  made  the  thought  of  a 
therapeutic  function  of  Christianity  as  inevitable  as 
anything  can  be.  Events  and  experience  proved  that 
the  generalization  which  was  first  made  as  a  protest 
against  license,  embodied  a  very  fundamental  human 


Health  275 

concern;  and  the  more  the  church  experimented  with 
the  matter,  the  more  it  found  that  it  had  struck  a  lead 
which  was  destined  to  have  great  results  in  the  moral 
and  spiritual  future  of  men.  Without  knowing  it  the 
early  Christians  struck  the  fundamental  philosophical 
and  practical  problem  of  human  life. 

Our  own  time  is  furnishing  ample  evidence  that 
this  relation  was  of  the  importance  just  indicated. 
There  is  to-day  a  world-wide  cult  which  has  linked 
together  the  names  of  Christianity  and  science.  Lu- 
dicrous as  this  combination  must  seem  to  the  scientific 
mind,  yet  the  conjunction  of  terms  is  significant  and 
wholly  natural.  Our  age  has  had  the  word  "  scien- 
tific "  as  its  distinctive  epithet  of  intellectual  freedom 
and  illumination.  Science  has  held  sway  in  the  uni- 
versity, on  the  platform,  and  in  the  legislative  hall. 
Not  to  be  "  scientific  "  was  to  be  beyond  the  pale  of 
the  intellectual  movement  of  the  age.  Hence  the  cult 
promptly  took  on  the  term  "  science  "  as  a  challenge 
to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  in  the  face  of  scientific 
ridicule  and  opposition  has  made  converts  in  every 
land  in  the  civilized  world.  Nor  will  it  quite  do 
simply  to  style  this  a  new  form  of  superstition. 
Natural  laws  have  their  revenges,  like  all  other  forces 
which  are  temporarily  thrust  to  one  side  or  unduly 
suppressed.  What  has  happened  is  the  reassertion 
of  the  primitive  relation  which  modern  science  refused 
to  recognize,  and  which  it  refused  to  give  its  proper 
place  in  the  theory  and  practise  of  medicine.  As- 
suming a  purely  materialistic  attitude  for  the  most 
part,  medical  science  arbitrarily  suppressed  a  relation 


276    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

which  is  as  vital  as  any  relation  in  this  world.  It  re- 
fused to  recognize  that  there  is  anything  spiritiial 
about  the  bodily  life  of  men ;  and  when  the  suppression 
had  reached  a  point  where  it  could  no  longer  be  en- 
dured, the  outraged  natural  law  broke  forth,  and  what 
we  could  not  have  given  to  us  naturally,  we  had  to 
take  unnaturally.  There  is  nothing  strange  or  unex- 
pected about  it.  It  is  a  perfectly  normal  reaction 
from  a  condition  which  was  impossible  and  untrue. 
But  the  cult  in  question  has  done  more  than  merely 
erect  itself  into  a  position  of  prominence  in  the  modern 
world.  It  has  caused  the  whole  question  of  the  thera- 
peutic office  of  religion  to  be  reopened,  and  has  al- 
ready caused  very  material  modifications  of  medical 
procedure,  and  is  likely  to  cause  more.  The  criticism 
of  medical  practice  which  hitherto  was  assumed  to  be 
the  private  business  of  medical  men  is  now  known  to 
be  the  business  of  human  beings  everywhere.  The  re- 
assertion  of  a  man's  right  to  be  the  final  arbiter  over 
the  affairs  of  his  own  body  is  what  is  being  rediscov- 
ered, and  the  sentence  of  death  is  not  going  to  be 
pronounced  by  anybody  again,  for  a  long  period  cer- 
tainly, without  the  patient's  consent.  And  if  the  pa- 
tient be  a  person  who  has  some  sort  of  a  spiritual  con- 
ception of  his  own  life  and  destiny,  he  is  going  to  be 
increasingly  unwilling  to  have  judgments  pronounced 
without  reasons  or  explanations  being  given.  That 
this  contention  is  soundly  grounded,  medical  evidence 
itself  proves  beyond  the  possibility  of  reasonable 
doubt.  Medical  chaos  and  crime  have  accumulated  a 
mass  of  testimony,  which  is  simply  overwhelming  in 


Health  277 

proof,  that  a  medical  papacy  is  no  more  to  be  trusted 
than  a  theological  one.  The  reason  why  medical  au- 
thority could  grow  to  the  vast  proportions  and  power 
that  it  has  assumed  in  our  own  time  is,  that  for  the 
most  part  it  meets  men  at  a  time  of  great  need  and 
helplessness, —  in  fact,  at  the  point  when  rational 
scrutiny  and  protest  are  least  able  to  assert  themselves. 
Moreover,  it  disguises  its  operations,  generally  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  and  buries  its  blunders  and  defeats 
under  a  mass  of  unintelligible  jargon,  which  nobody 
not  trained  therein  can  comprehend.  This  could  not 
result  in  anything  but  tyranny,  and  in  fact  it  did  so 
terminate.  It  was  impossible  that  the  modern  mind 
should  subject  itself  to  this  kind  of  bondage  forever. 
It  was  also  impossible  that  relief  should  come  by  a 
mastery  of  the  medical  science  itself,  in  the  terms  in 
which  it  utters  itself  and  declares  its  judgments. 
Hence  the  modern  mind  took  the  only  way  out  pos- 
sible. It  matched  the  finalities  of  medical  science  by 
the  finalities  of  religion.  In  the  more  drastic  forms 
of  the  revolt  it  threw  medical  science  out  of  the  win- 
dow altogether.  It  refused  to  deal  with  what  had 
over  and  over  again  proved  to  be  false,  misleading, 
and  even  criminal.  It  pointed  to  the  authentic  rec- 
ords of  the  history  of  medical  science  itself.  It 
raised  up  a  vast  cohort  of  "  cured  "  persons  who  dumb- 
founded the  world  and  medical  science  alike  with  their 
positive  assertions  of  physical  transformation  with- 
out recourse  to  any  of  the  "  proved  "  methods  of  med- 
ical science.  It  awoke  the  latent  skepticism  of  medical 
science  abroad  in  the  world,  and  organized  it,  and 


278    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

brought  the  whole  world  into  a  fresh  consciousness 
of  something  fundamental  that  had  been  overlooked. 
In  this  juncture  the  medical  men  behaved  just  as  the 
theologians  have  under  similar  circumstances.  They 
saw  their  prerogative  threatened,  and  they  raged, 
ridiculed,  and  stormed.  They  called  names  and  in- 
voked the  law,  and  in  fact  exhausted  the  whole  gamut 
of  possibilities  to  suppress  what  they  held  to  be  the 
destruction  of  their  science  and  a  menace  to  human- 
ity. But  all  to  no  purpose.  Bullying  by  medical  men 
has  gone  the  way  of  bullying  by  theologians.  The 
facts  were  too  widely  known,  the  excesses  of  medicine 
too  pronounced,  and  the  materialism  too  gross  and 
sensual  to  be  denied. 

One  of  the  first  results  of  this  movement  was  one 
which  could  hardly  have  been  expected.  The  lesser 
members  of  the  medical  fraternity  and  the  ones  who 
had  themselves  latent  feelings  on  the  subject  of  reli- 
gion began  to  announce  themselves  and  raise  up  their 
voices.  To  be  sure  they  kept  on  using  the  old  nomen- 
clature; but,  in  general,  they  tried  to  include  the  new 
relation  under  some  medical  formula  and  tried  to  ex- 
plain the  new  "  phenomena  "  by  the  old  medicine.  In 
fact  it  was  just  like  the  effort  of  the  old  religious 
devotees,  the  primitive  as  well  as  later  theologians 
trying  to  meet  the  new  facts  by  the  statement  that 
they  had  always  suspected  some  such  thing  and  tried 
to  make  it  their  own.  But  the  effort  is  likely  to  prove 
futile,  because  the  break  was  too  complete,  and  we 
shall  see  a  bitter  war  of  these  two  elements  for  a  gen- 
eration at  least.     In  fact  so  far  has  the  movement  now 


Health  279 

gone,  that  there  is  a  distinct  resistance  to  many  legiti- 
mate forms  of  medical  science;  and  everywhere  grim 
and  dire  rumors  are  heard  of  "  medical  monopoly," 
one  of  the  most  interesting  of  which  is  the  opposition 
to  a  national  board  of  health,  on  the  ground  that  it 
is  the  establishment  of  a  national  monopoly  in  med- 
ical practice.  Certainly  such  a  board  will  have  dif- 
ficult steering  if  it  is  to  provide  for  the  medical  super- 
naturalists  as  well  as  all  others.  It  is  merely  the  fact 
which  we  are  now  noting,  without  respect  to  the 
rights  or  wrongs  of  the  controversy. 

Why  did  this  revolt  from  so  well-established  and 
so  highly  regarded  a  science  as  medical  science  gain 
such  enormous  headway?  That  is  the  main  ques- 
tion. Men  who  believe  in  the  law  of  cause  and  effect 
must  know  that  there  must  be  somewhere  a  sound  and 
adequate  reason  for  this  world-wide  protest,  which, 
besides  organizing  itself  and  developing  a  vast  propa- 
ganda of  its  own,  has  impregnated  all  forms  of  re- 
ligion and  all  classes  of  society.  The  answer  is  per- 
fectly clear  when  one  looks  at  the  question  from  the 
historical  side.  Christianity  is  reasserting  the  old 
doctrine  that  the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
It  is  reasserting  the  sanctity  of  the  bodily  habitation 
of  the  soul.  It  is  extending  its  area  of  control  and 
coming  back  to  its  Hebraic  sources.  Moreover  it  is 
doing  this,  because  it  found  that  the  motive  of  self- 
interest  was  not  sufficient  to  secure  attention  to  these 
things.  Men  could  not  be  induced  to  be  pure  in  body, 
merely  because  destruction  awaited  them  if  they  were 
not  pure.     But  it  was  found  that  if  they  had  any  spir- 


28o    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

itual  sense  of  any  kind,  if  that  spiritual  sense  could 
be  extended  to  control  the  mental  and  bodily  life,  the 
result  would  be  secured.  This  simply  means  that 
men  would  do  as  religion  what  they  would  not  do  as 
science.  It  merely  meant  that  a  dynamic  was  found 
in  spiritual  conceptions  which  could  not  be  found  in 
materialistic  persuasion.  Perhaps  this  is  the  essence 
of  superstition.  But  whether  it  is  or  not,  it  is  real 
and  vital,  and  nobody  with  a  thimbleful  of  sense  will 
deny  it.  Medicine,  like  everything  else,  must  submit 
ultimately  to  the  test  and  the  corrective  of  the  uni- 
versal experience.  If  this  world-wide  experience  is 
to  be  styled  superstition,  the  position  of  science  is 
rather  pitiful.  What  use  has  it  made  of  its  splendid 
opportunity,  how  has  its  almost  unquestioned  author- 
ity been  used,  that  this  should  be  the  outcome  of  it 
all?  What  is  the  use  of  a  "  science  "  that  throws  the 
whole  world  into  a  spasm  of  superstition?  Plainly 
either  horn  of  the  dilemma  is  painful. 

But  there  is  no  more  reason  for  pessimism  here 
than  in  the  consideration  of  any  other  phase  of  social 
growth.  Two  forces  of  immense  power  are  here  act- 
ing in  conjunction,  and  together  they  are  usually  ir- 
resistible. The  first  has  already  been  indicated.  The 
spiritual  nature  of  man  is  finding  itself  again,  and  re- 
asserting itself  under  the  influence  of  Christianity 
throughout  the  world.  The  democratic  spirit,  which 
is  inherent  in  Christianity,  is  lifting  men  out  of  the 
sense  of  bondage,  whether  it  is  to  a  social  program, 
a  medical  program,  or  any  other  kind.  We  are  really 
in  a  kind   of  new  reformation.     The  contempt   for 


Health  281 

popular  intelligence  which  had  reached  its  greatest  in- 
tensity among  medical  men,  with  the  legal  men  a  close 
second,  is  bearing  its  natural  fruit  —  revolt.  Human 
values  have  been  raised,  and  the  medical  men  knew 
it  not.  The  spirit  of  democracy  has  found  that  the 
individual  is  a  creature  of  vast  value  if  he  is  properly 
conserved.  It  sees  that  a  very  large  part  of  this  con- 
servation rests  upon  his  freedom,  especially  his  spir- 
itual freedom,  and  so,  under  the  joint  influence  of  re- 
ligion and  democracy,  health  begins  to  be  regarded 
not  as  an  asset,  but  as  an  obligation.  The  moment 
health  begins  to  assume  a  moral  quality,  the  doom  of 
materialistic  science  is  sounded.  Because  it  is  abso- 
lutely certain  that  as  soon  as  health  is  regarded  as  a 
personal  moral  obligation,  its  social  nature  will  also 
become  recognized,  and  it  will  become  a  public  moral 
obligation.  And,  from  this  point  onward,  democracy 
is  acting  with  entire  consistency.  It  has  hospitals,  to 
be  sure,  and  does  not  abandon  the  old  science;  but  it 
taxes  itself  for  playgrounds,  parks,  bathhouses,  and 
a  vast  variety  of  things  which  it  can  comprehend  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  medical  dictionary.  And  the  more  it 
does  this,  the  more  it  sees  its  ultimate  emancipation 
from  a  bondage  which,  as  freedom  is  attained,  seems 
more  costly,  more  cruel,  and  less  valuable  than  ever. 

Ill 

These  national  health  movements  are  therefore  to 
be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  moral  movement  of  the 
world.     They  rest  upon  a  distinctly  new  conception 


282    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  the  value  of  human  life  and  of  its  spiritual  quality. 
More  and  more  the  forces  of  social  redemption  are 
seen  to  be  linked  with  forces  which  are  distinctly  spir- 
itual in  quality  and  character.  It  is  this  discovery 
that  makes  the  social  crisis  which  the  world,  as  well 
as  the  church,  is  facing.  It  is  so  like  the  situation 
prevailing  at  the  time  the  Christian  religion  faced  the 
Roman  Empire  at  the  beginning  of  Christianity's 
career,  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  what  the  end  will 
be.  There  will  come  a  time  for  meditation,  when  all 
things  have  to  be  proved  and  that  which  is  good  pre- 
served, while  the  rest  is  cast  away.  How  shall  this 
come  about?  The  answer  is  at  hand;  and,  unless 
something  unforeseen  occurs,  what  is  likely  to  happen 
is,  that  the  Christian  church  will  become  the  agency 
for  the  reconciliation  of  medicine  and  religion.  By 
its  character  and  by  its  constitution  the  one  agency 
which  can  deal  with  this  problem  is  the  Christian 
church.  Its  vast  numbers,  its  democratic  nature,  its 
simple  and  inclusive  platform,  its  social  life  and  aim, 
form  the  natural  channels  for  the  adjustment  of  the 
sound  and  proper  relations  of  medical  science  and  the 
spiritual  aspirations  and  consciousness  of  men.  This 
will  never  mean  what  it  once  meant  —  medical  science 
under  the  dominion  of  ecclesiastics.  There  will  never 
be  a  "  Roman  Catholic  "  medicine  and  a  "  Presby- 
terian "  medicine  and  a  "  Protestant  Episcopal "  med- 
icine. But  there  are,  and  there  always  will  be.  Holy 
Ghost  hospitals  and  Presbyterian  hospitals,  and  prob- 
ably various  other  kinds ;  and  all  these  will  simply  be 
reminders  to  medical  science,  that  men  will  not  have 


Health  283 

their  spiritual  natures  insulted,  and  fundamental 
movements  of  the  human  soul  left  out  of  the  calcula- 
tion, in  dealing  with  their  bodily  ills.  Very  likely  a 
broken  arm  of  a  Presbyterian  elder  will  not  differ 
fundamentally  from  the  broken  arm  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest.  But  it  may  make,  and  probably  will 
make,  to  both  Presbyterian  elders  and  Catholic 
priests,  a  very  great  difference  whether  the  gentleman 
who  comes  to  set  that  arm  be  a  man  who  recognizes 
certain  facts  about  human  nature  and  the  spiritual  na- 
ture of  man.  And  given  the  choice,  he  is  already  be- 
ing given  a  great  deal  more  than  he  used  to  be,  both 
the  Presbyterian  and  the  Catholic  will  prefer  to  have 
his  trouble  handled  by  somebody  with  whom  he  has 
some  social  interest  in  common.  That  is  the  funda- 
mental factor  in  the  future  of  this  matter. 

There  is  no  argument  here  for  the  resumption  of 
the  mediaeval  ecclesiastical  control  over  medical  sci- 
ence or  any  science.  What  there  is  here  is  the  evi- 
dence that,  as,  in  the  non-Christian  lands,  the  social 
expression  of  religion  has  taken  on  the  form  of  med- 
ical assistance  and  supervision  and  has,  in  accord  with 
the  social  tendencies  of  the  time,  magnified  the  spir- 
itual nature  of  social  service;  so  in  this  country  there 
will  grow  a  closer  alliance  between  that  form  of  re- 
ligion which  speaks  directly  to  the  spiritual  experience 
of  men  and  that  which  speaks  directly  to  his  bodily 
condition.  And  it  does  not  need  a  seer  to  predict  that 
the  medical  science  which  speaks  both  tongues  will 
be  the  one  which  will  prevail.  And  it  will  prevail 
simply  because  it  is  more  real,  more  vital,  and  more 


284    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

true  to  the  facts  of  human  Hfe  and  experience.  It 
will  still  be  possible  to  say  that  a  typhoid  fever  has 
absolutely  no  relation  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible; 
but  it  will  make  a  difference  as  real  as  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  tides  whether  the  man  who  is  treating  the 
typhoid  fever  is  or  is  not  hostile  to  the  believer's  ideas 
on  the  latter  subject.  Nor  will  this  be  at  all  in  the 
nature  of  a  theological  test.  It  will  simply  be  symp- 
tomatic of  a  state  of  mind,  an  attitude  toward  belief 
and  faith,  and  faith  will  simply  recognize  itself;  and, 
the  common  bond  discovered, —  whether  it  be  inspira- 
tion or  the  transformation  of  the  sacrament  is  entirely 
immaterial, —  there  will  be  a  gain  to  all  concerned. 
It  will  be  simply  because  a  social  bond  is  discovered 
which  will  make  for  confidence,  for  dynamic  power. 
The  medical  man  can  still  have  fun  with  himself  about 
"  placebos  "  and  the  like,  but  his  fun  will  not  be  all 
his  own.  His  patient  will  have  some  of  it  also.  If 
he  does  not,  his  friends  will  have  it  for  him.  And 
all  this  will  come  about  simply  because  the  demand 
and  necessity  for  some  expression  of  the  social  tie 
will  make  the  progress  of  genuine  science  more  steady 
and  more  real.  But  this  progress  will  be  the  surer 
because  it  has  a  corrective  in  the  form  of  a  demand 
for  the  recognition  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  man.  It 
may  be  unreasonable  and  not  altogether  logically  de- 
fensible. But  it  will  be  human,  and  perhaps  it  may 
not  be  so  unjustifiable  as  at  the  first  glance  it  ap- 
pears. 

The  part  which  the  Christian  church  will  have  in 
this  movement  will  of  course  be  very  large.     How 


Health  285 

large  may  be  guessed  from  the  widie  extent  for  the 
original  movement  referred  to  at  the  beginning  of 
this  discussion.  But,  with  the  increasing  spiritualiza- 
tion  of  religion  through  the  socializing  and  democra- 
tizing movement  within  its  special  sphere,  its  influence 
must  also  enormously  increase,  because  religion  will 
never  be  without  a  social  institution  to  embody  and 
express  its  aspiration.  If  the  Christianity  of  the  fu- 
ture grows  more  spiritual,  it  will  more  and  more  in- 
sist upon  the  spiritual  qualities  of  its  own  nature,  for 
the  direction  of  those  with  whom  it  retains  its  influ- 
ence. In  other  words,  it  will  come  back  to  its  original 
Hebraic  doctrine.  Its  high  priests,  whether  they  be 
in  the  church  or  the  medical  school,  will  have  to  be 
men  specially  cleansed  and  specially  capable  in  their 
functions,  but  they  will  have  to  be  "  priests  "  in  their 
calling.  They  will  have  to  maintain  a  character  con- 
sistent with  their  high  and  spiritual  function,  because 
no  man  will  be  permitted  to  meddle  with  the  temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  who  does  not  know  what  such  a 
temple  is  or  ought  to  be.  Those  who  hold  a  pigsty 
theory  of  the  human  frame  will  doubtless  find  their 
own  kind  of  ministers,  to  abet  them  in  their  monstrous 
rites  of  bodily  degradation  and  self-indulgence.  But 
the  spiritualized  man  will  demand  clean  hands  and  a 
pure  heart,  in  exactly  the  same  sense  as  he  now,  the- 
oretically at  least,  demands  it  of  his  spiritual  adviser. 
Medicine  itself  will  be  baptized  in  a  bath  of  some  spir- 
itual antiseptic,  which  will  not  divest  it  of  one  single 
principle  which  is  true,  one  single  discovery  which 
is  real,  one  atom  of  liberty  for  research  which  is  hu- 


286    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

mane  and  just,  or  one  resource  which  is  consistent  with 
the  Christian  estimate  of  humanity.  No  theological 
dogmas  will  be  imposed  upon  it ;  but,  dealing  with  high 
and  holy  things,  it  must  come  with  clean  hands  and 
a  pure  heart,  as  befits  a  priest  of  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

It  is  impossible  to  contemplate  this  result  without 
seeing,  also,  that  it  will  have  important  effects  upon 
the  development  of  medical  science  and  medical  edu- 
cation. Already  social  service  departments  are  being 
organized  everywhere  in  connection  with  hospitals. 
Already  "  social  welfare  "  appears  among  the  subjects 
which  are  to  have  a  place  among  legislative  commit- 
tees. The  present  widespread  agitation  in  connection 
with  the  social  evil,  the  establishment  of  great  founda- 
tions for  the  special  investigation  of  sexual  crimes  and 
the  diseases  allied  to  them  point  the  way  toward  the 
erection,  in  the  medical  school  itself,  of  departments 
which  must  not  only  organize  medical  knowledge  of 
these  things  themselves,  but  hardly  less  coordinate 
that  knowledge  with  the  social  movement  and  find 
the  point  of  communion  and  cooperation.  That  re- 
ligion must  figure  largely  in  this  synthesis  nobody  can 
doubt.  That  the  Christian  church  must  be  brought 
into  the  alliance  for  the  effective  enforcement  of  the 
new  program  is  equally  beyond  doubt.  Already  the 
relation  of  this  particular  phase  of  medical  investiga- 
tion is  being  related  to  industry.  It  will  also  be  re- 
lated, even  more  than  it  already  has  been,  with  reli- 
gion; and,  through  this  means,  religion  will  become 


Health  287 

more  scientific,  and  the  practice  of  medicine  more  spir- 
itual and  refined,  and  the  power  of  both  made  more 
effective  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  in  the  com- 
mon standards  of  society. 


CHAPTER  XI 
RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


The  requirement  of  civilization  into  which  a  child  is  born, 
determines  not  only  what  he  shall  study  in  school,  but  what 
habits  and  customs  he  shall  be  taught  in  the  family  before  the 
school  age  arrives;  as  well  as  that  he  shall  acquire  a  skilled 
acquaintance  with  some  one  of  a  definite  series  of  trades,  pro- 
fessions or  vocations  in  the  years  that  follow  school;  and  fur- 
thermore that  this  question  of  the  relation  of  the  pupil  to  his 
civilization  determines  what  political  duties  he  shall  assume  and 
what  religious  faith  or  spiritual  aspirations  shall  be  adopted 
for  the  conduct  of  his  life. 

W  T.  Harris, 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  on  Elementary  Education. 


CHAPTER  XI 

RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


THE  present  revival  of  interest  in,  and  discus- 
sion of,  the  subject  of  religious  education,  may 
well  be  said  to  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  of 
Christian  thought  upon  the  question  of  the  religious 
training  of  the  young.  It  is  epoch-making,  first  of 
all,  because  it  points  out  with  relentless  clearness  and 
tenacious  reassertiveness  the  utter  failure  of  certain 
scholastic  programs  to  produce  certain  other  religious 
results.  It  makes  it  evident  that  there  is  a  very  clear 
and  unmistakable  difference  between  religious  and 
secular  education.  It  shows  that  the  progressive 
ehmination  from  all  public  educational  institutions  of 
anything  like  definite  religious  teaching  has  resulted  in 
a  moral  and  spiritual  decline,  which  all  the  optimism 
in  the  world  cannot  gloss  over.  It  accentuates  a  re- 
lation between  religion  and  morals  which  many  have 
been  fond  of  saying  did  not  exist,  and  has  produced  a 
religious  situation  in  the  land  which  is  as  bewildering 
as  it  is  disheartening.  Moreover,  it  indicates  that 
there  is  no  present  expectation  of  accomplishing  any- 
thing by  means  of  a  general  reformiatory  movement 
among  the  adult  population.     Nobody  appears  to  think 

291 


292    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

that  either  the  habits  of  thought  or  the  practices  of 
the  generations  mature  enough  to  think  for  themselves 
will  be  changed.  By  a  common  consent  which  is 
rather  remarkable,  every  one  turns  to  the  young  for 
a  new  order,  and  seems  to  hope  that  only  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  youth  will  a  change  be  brought  about. 
This  skepticism  concerning  the  mature  mind,  and  this 
prevailing  unbelief  in  the  possible  reformation  of  the 
adult  population,  is  itself  one  of  the  most  significant 
things  about  the  whole  movement.  "  Educate  the 
young,"  is  the  universal  rallying  cry.  "  To  the  school 
and  the  college,"  is  written  on  all  the  battle  standards 
of  the  new  crusade. 

Coincident  with  this  general  skepticism  concerning 
the  present  governing  adult  population  in  the  church, 
and  allied  to  it,  is  a  prevailing  feeling  of  the  incapa- 
bility of  the  clergy  successfully  to  grapple  with  the 
question.  The  new  movement  generally  looks  not  to 
the  clergyman,  but  to  the  college  professor,  as  its 
leader  and  inspirer.  We  know  this  is  true,  because 
the  college  professors  tell  us  so,  and  because  they  alone 
appear  to  have  the  materials  and  the  training  by  which 
the  reform  is  to  be  successfully  accomplished.  The 
new  movement  is  to  be  an  educational  movement.  It 
is  to  have  the  form  and  the  methods  of  education.  It 
is  to  be  allied  pedagogically  and  psychologically  with 
the  most  advanced  ideas  in  these  branches.  It  is  to 
have  scientific  character  and  to  be  scientifically  justi- 
fiable. Now  the  ministry,  in  general,  is  not  held  to 
be  competent  for  this  task.  The  present  generation 
of  ministers,  it  is  said,  has  not  had  the  opportunities 


Religious  Education  293 

which  are  absolutely  needful  for  sufficiency  in  these 
things.  The  sciences  which  are  supposed  to  create  ca- 
pacity for  this  work  have  been  developed  so  recently, 
and  applied  so  lately  to  the  question  of  religious  train- 
ing, that  there  has  been  no  time  for  the  doctrines  and 
methods  to  get  into  the  pulpits  of  the  land  except  in 
very  rare  cases.  It  is  by  no  means  an  exaggeration, 
to  say,  that,  in  general,  the  feeling  of  the  incompe- 
tency of  the  ministry  for  the  new  tasks  of  religious 
education  is  as  wide-spread  as  is  the  feeling  that  the 
whole  existing  regime  for  the  religous  instruction  of 
the  young  has  hopelessly  broken  down.  Indeed,  the 
two  opinions  rest  substantially  upon  the  same  facts. 
A  competent  ministry  would  not  have  permitted  the 
present  situation  to  arise.  The  deplorable  inequalities 
of  the  prevailing  methods  of  training  the  young,  and 
the  pitiful  failure  of  the  existing  means  for  their  in- 
struction in  the  fundamental  truths  of  religion,  prove 
the  fact.  The  depressing  situation  and  an  incapable 
ministry  are  corollary  facts.  This,  in  general,  repre- 
sents the  situation  in  the  minds  of  those  who  seem  to 
be  in  the  foreground  of  the  new  crusade. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  worth  while  to  reen force  this 
view  of  the  case  by  quotations,  which  will  lift  the  dis- 
cussion out  of  the  realm  of  mere  personal  opinion. 
President  Eliot,  speaking  before  the  Connecticut  State 
Teachers'  Association,  urging  more  money  for  the 
public,  schools  on  account  of  their  shortcomings,  dis- 
tinctly enumerates  drunkenness  and  gambling  as  hav- 
ing, in  the  main,  not  been  diminished  perceptibly  by 
public-school  education,  and  goes  on  to  declare  that 


294    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  unpunished  crimes,  the  abounding  mass  of  bad  or 
degrading  reading-matter,  the  prevalence  of  medical 
delusions,  the  failure  of  city  government,  the  general 
practise  of  divorce,  the  survival  of  the  spoils  system 
in  politics,  and  a  variety  of  other  ills  show  conclusively 
that  the  American  public-school  system,  certainly  up 
to  this  point,  has  failed  to  keep  down  the  growth  of 
evil  in  the  land.  The  southern  belt  of  the  country  is 
still  blood-stained  with  the  ravages  of  lynching  parties, 
whose  revolting  details  cannot  be  repeated  in  mixed 
assemblies.  Says  President  Eliot :  "  Our  forefa- 
thers expected  miracles  of  prompt  enlightenment ;  and 
we  are  seriously  disappointed  that  popular  education 
has  not  defended  us  against  barbarian  vices  like  drunk- 
enness and  gambling,  against  increase  of  crime  and 
insanity,  and  against  innumerable  delusions,  impos- 
tures, and  follies.  We  ought  to  spend  more  money  on 
schools,  because  the  present  expenditures  do  not  pro- 
duce all  the  good  results  which  were  expected,  and  may 
reasonably  be  aimed  at."  Therein  the  president  of 
Harvard  University  states  his  view  of  the  facts,  and 
also  what  he  considers  the  next  step  in  the  direction  of 
improvement.  It  will  be  noticed  that  he  does  not  dis- 
credit the  theory  that  education  will  ultimately  cause 
moral  improvement,  but  merely  suggests  that  the  thing 
has  been  inadequately  performed.  But  that  the  fail- 
ure of  the  school  on  the  side  of  morals  is  palpable  and 
beyond  question,  he  affirms  without  hesitation  and 
with  abundant  citation. 

Now  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  this  arraign- 
ment of  the  public  school  is  at  the  same  time  an  ar- 


Religious  Education  295 

raignment  of  the  churches  of  the  land,  for  these  also 
have  had  their  opportunity ;  they,  too,  have  spent  abun- 
dant money,  and  have  been  carrying  on  vast  enter- 
prises which  were  supposed  to  emerge  in  the  moral 
and  spiritual  enlightenment  of  the  multitudes.  If  the 
facts  are  as  President  Eliot  presents  them,  then  the 
Christian  churches  of  America  cannot  escape  their 
measure  of  responsibility  for  the  existing  situation. 
Indeed,  it  is  the  recognition  of  this  fact  that  has  led 
to  the  religious-education  movement  which  we  are  now 
discussing.  In  the  secular  field.  President  Eliot  says, 
it  is  the  lack  of  expenditures  which  has  made  the 
schools  morally  inefficient.  In  the  field  of  religious 
education,  notably  in  the  Bible  schools  of  the  land, 
in  the  main  it  is  charged  to  an  incapable  ministry, 
ivhich  in  turn  has  produced  incapability  through  the 
whole  educational  machinery  of  the  church.  It  is 
worth  while  to  mention,  simply  in  passing,  that,  among 
the  propositions  which  the  president  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity brings  forward  for  the  betterment  of  the  sit- 
uation in  the  public  schools,  is  one  which  has  to  do 
with  pensions  for  teachers,  and  various  other  proposals 
which  shall  give  to  the  teacher  greater  security,  more 
permanent  tenure,  greater  peace  of  mind,  and  other 
conditions  sine  qua  non  to  effective  teaching.  If 
these  are  needful  for  power  and  efficiency  in  teaching, 
what  shall  we  infer  as  to  their  necessity  to  the  preacher 
and  pastor? 

To  show  that  the  president  of  Harvard  University 
is  not  alone  in  his  opinion,  let  us  cite  the  testimony  of 
another  eminent  educator,  who  represents  a  totally 


296    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

different  type  of  thought.  Speaking  on  the  subject 
"  State  Education :  Its  Rise  and  Present  Standing," 
President  Jacob  Gould  Schurman,  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity, after  reviewing  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  land,  closed  his  estimate  with  the 
following  paragraph :  — 

"  Here  then  is  the  situation  as  I  see  it.  The  schools 
at  present  do  next  to  nothing  for  moral  culture,  and 
nothing  whatever  for  religious  training,  which  is  in- 
dispensable for  the  energizing  of  moral  culture.  Yet 
these  ends  are  all-important.  In  Germany  and  in 
England  they  are  legally  assigned  to  the  schools,  as 
they  were  also  by  the  Puritan  founders  of  the  New 
England  commonwealths,  and  in  China  they  form  the 
most  important  object  of  all  education.  Our  schools 
are  criticised  for  this  notable  deficiency.  The  teach- 
ers, in  my  judgment,  are  not  qualified  to  meet  it." 

Here  we  have,  not  only  the  judgment  expressed  as 
to  the  conditions  with  which  we  have  to  deal  but  we 
have  the  impyortant  addition,  to  the  estimate  of  the 
conditions,  that  the  teachers  are  not  qualified  to  meet 
the  emergency  which  is  thus  thrust  upon  them.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that,  as  a  partial  remedy  for  this 
state  of  affairs.  Dr.  Schurman  proposes  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  churches,  and  to  introduce  religious  train- 
ing into  the  public  schools  through  the  introduction 
into  the  schools  of  the  ministers  of  all  denominations 
according  to  the  proportion  of  the  students  who  choose 
their  teaching. 

Dr.  Schurman,  expanding  what  we  have  already 
quoted,  adds  here  also  an  interesting  testimony,  which 


Religious  Education  297 

certainly  cannot  be  supposed  to  proceed  from  any  in- 
stinct of  religious  conservatism,  or  from  any  particu- 
lar fear  of  radical  or  destructive  teaching.  It  wiU  be 
seen,  in  the  passage  we  are  about  to  cite,  that  sev- 
eral things  are  distinctly  affirmed ;  namely,  the  essen- 
tial difference  between  mere  academic  instruction  and 
religious  teaching,  the  general  inability  to  link  the  two 
successfully  together,  the  power  of  personality  as  the 
supreme  factor  in  religious  teaching,  and  the  neces- 
sity for  authority,  that  is  substantially  the  requisition 
for  a  kind  of  conviction  in  the  teacher  which  is  the 
assertion  of  a  superior  and  effective  authority  for  the 
message  imparted.     Says  President  Schurman :  — 

"  The  school  provides  intellectual  instruction ;  it  is 
neither  a  state  church  nor  reformatory.  For  this 
moral  and  spiritual  vocation  the  teachers  have  neither 
the  necessary  aptitudes  nor  credentials.  Much  as  I 
am  devoted  to  the  public  schools,  and  greatly  as  I  ap- 
preciate their  democratic  spirit  and  the  discipline  they 
furnish  in  prudence  and  the  minor  virtues,  I  do  not 
want  the  teachers  either  as  priests  or  moralists  for 
my  children  —  and  that  though  teachers  be  proficient 
in  their  work  and  of  character  irreproachable. 

*'  Do  I  then  disparage  moral  and  religious  instruc- 
tion? Far  from  it.  That  men  be  pious  and  good 
seems  to  me  more  important  than  that  they  be  edu- 
cated. And  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that  children  are 
trained  in  goodness,  not  by  any  study  of  ethical  text- 
books, but  by  contact  with  good  men  and  women  and 
also  through  the  awakening  of  the  sentiments  of  duty 
and  righteousness  by  means  of  direct  religious  teach- 


298    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ing.  In  children,  as  indeed  in  the  generahty  of  man- 
kind, morality  without  religion  is  in  constant  danger 
of  degenerating  into  expediency  and  convenience:  it 
lacks  both  support  and  authority." 

There  is  probably  not  a  single  intelligent  observer 
of  the  situation  as  it  exists  in  this  country  at  present, 
who  has  thought  along  these  lines  for  any  considerable 
period,  whose  convictions  these  words  do  not  express 
with  substantial  accuracy. 


II 

In  discussing  the  possibilities  of  the  new  educational 
movement  for  religious  education,  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
there  is  here  a  demand  for  a  scientific  training  which 
shall  be  in  accord,  as  the  statement  goes,  with  the  peda- 
gogical and  psychological  principles  which  govern,  or 
are  supposed  to  govern,  in  other  departments  of  in- 
struction. In  other  words,  scientific  instruction  is  to 
be  the  norm  by  which  religious  education  is  to  be 
judged  and  carried  on.  Now  it  cannot  be  regarded 
as  irrational  opposition  to  the  proposed  program,  if 
we  raise  the  question  whether  there  is  not  a  vital  dif- 
ference between  scientific  education  and  religious  edu- 
cation which  renders  the  methods  of  the  one  subject 
to  more  or  less  variation  when  transferred  to  the  other. 
Scientific  teaching  of  chemistry  or  geology  is  possible, 
undoubtedly.  We  raise  the  question.  Is  there  no  fun- 
damental difference  between  the  scientific  method  em- 
ployed in  teaching  chemistry  or  geology,  and  that 
necessary  for  teaching  religion?     Religion  here  must 


Religious  Education  299 

not  be  confused  with  the  history  of  religion,  observe, 
or  even  the  Bible ;  for  the  external  facts  of  the  Bible, 
or  the  history  of  religion,  or  even  church  history  may 
be  taught  utterly  without  any  bias,  or  even  the  slight- 
est personal  interest,  on  the  part  of  the  instructor. 
But  it  is  religion  we  are  to  teach,  and  it  is  religious 
instruction  that  we  are  to  seek.  Moreover,  religious 
instruction  here  is  not  to  be  confused  with  ethics  or 
the  teaching  of  moral  maxims.  Let  us  steadily  keep 
in  mind  what  we  have  in  view,  namely,  religious  in- 
struction. Is  there  no  essential  difference  between  the 
method  and  fundamental  requirements  incident  to  the 
teaching  of  chemistry  and  those  required  in  religious 
teaching?  To  ask  this  question  is  itself  in  part  to  an- 
swer it;  but,  nevertheless,  we  will  answer  it  directly. 
Professor  Trowbridge,  of  Harvard  University,  has 
lately  given  us  the  determinate  quality  of  scientific 
knowledge  or  experiment.  It  lies,  he  says,  in  the  qual- 
ity of  "  repeatableness."  A  genuine  scientific  experi- 
ment, says  Professor  Trowbridge,  is  one  which  any 
one  suitably  skilled,  and  with  suitable  appliances,  can 
reproduce  at  will.  This  takes  it  out  of  the  region  of 
individual  opinion,  caprice,  or  point  of  view.  This 
is  what  makes  it  "  science,"  and  everything  that  has 
the  character  "  scientific,"  has,  as  its  determinate  char- 
acteristic, this  quality  of  repeatableness.  Now  we 
know  this  can  be  done  in  chemistry,  geology,  or  any 
of  the  recognized  sciences.  Is  a  purely  scientific  dem- 
onstration from  this  point  of  view  possible  in  religion  ? 
Can  religion  be  scientifically  taught,  keeping  in  mind 
what  the  professor  in  physics  at  Harvard  says  is  the 


300     Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

determinate    quality    of    a    scientific    experiment    or 
method  ? 

Moreover,  scientific  education  takes  no  account  of 
personalities.  The  professor  of  physics  or  chemistry 
or  geology  may,  or  may  not,  be  personally  admirable 
or  otherwise.  He  may  be  agreeable  or  disagreeable 
to  his  pupils.  On  the  moral  side  he  may  be  abso- 
lutely neutral,  without  vitiating  the  scientific  author- 
ity of  his  instruction,  or  the  validity  of  his  conclusions 
in  his  particular  field  of  inquiry  and  instruction.  But 
is  this  true  in  religion?  Or  has  the  personality  of  the 
instructor  a  value,  in  the  department  of  religion,  which 
it  has  not  anywhere  else?  And  is  not  this  value  an 
educational  value;  that  is,  one  that  gives  greater  or 
less  validity  to  the  method  and  material  of  instruction? 
To  ask  this  question  also  seems  to  be  answering  it ;  for, 
if  there  is  anything  that  seems  to  be  settled,  it  is  that 
the  personal  element  in  religious  teaching  and  work  is 
so  largely  the  predominant  element,  that  orthodoxy 
and  heresy  are  becoming  almost  exclusively  matters 
of  personality.  At  all  events,  certain  personages  are 
allowed  to  hold  opinions  and  express  them  which  are 
not  tolerated  in  others,  and  the  judgment  of  most  coun- 
cils and  other  bodies  which  have  to  do  with  authoriz- 
ing teachers  of  religion,  takes  more  account  of  what 
they  call  "  the  spirit  of  the  man  "  than  they  do  of  the 
special  doctrines  he  holds.  They  somehow  seem  to 
feel  that  a  right  spirit  will  ultimately  teach  the  right 
things.  Of  course  this  is  exactly  along  the  New 
Testament  line  that,  "  Whoever  will  do  the  will,  shall 
know  of  the  teaching  " ;  but  of  this  circumstance  at 


Religious  Education  301 

present  we  take  no  account.  The  main  fact  to  be 
noted  is,  that  almost  universally  the  personality  has 
not  only  force,  significance,  and  authority  in  the  mat- 
ter of  religious  instruction,  while  it  has  absolutely  none 
in  scientific  teaching,  but  that  such  personality  is  the 
supreme  and  often  decisive  element,  almost  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  many  other  important  elements  in  such  in- 
struction. 

If  there  is  an  exception  to  this  contrast,  it  is  in  the 
science  of  pedagogy.  We  are  not  aware  whether 
pedagogy  is  or  is  not  yet  properly  a  science;  but,  if 
it  is,  it  is  a  science  in  which  provision  must  be  made 
for  the  personal  element.  Pedagogy  and  personality 
are  so  inextricably  linked  together  in  the  teacher,  that 
it  would  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  know  which  was 
which.  The  most  successful  teachers,  as  a  rule,  are 
not  able  to  define  exactly  what  it  is  that  gives  them 
their  success;  just  as  the  greatest  preachers  seem  un- 
able to  explain  satisfactorily  to  intending  candidates 
for  the  pulpit,  what  it  is  that  gives  them  their  power. 
Certainly,  when  we  discuss  the  science  of  teaching,  we 
introduce  a  personal  element  which  must  qualify,  if 
it  does  not  often  invalidate,  whatever  scientific  in- 
struction may  be  given  in  this  department. 

The  difference  which  is  here  brought  to  view  is,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  present  writer,  fundamental  and 
vital.  There  is  a  large  measure  of  difference  between 
scientific  and  religious  instruction  which  rests  upon 
data,  materials,  and  facts  of  personality  which  makes 
what  is  sound  and  effective  in  one  sphere,  only  ap- 
proximately so  in  the  other.     Whoever  states  he  has 


302     Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

a  scientific  method  for  religious  instruction,  therefore, 
either  cannot  mean  what  the  clearest-headed  men  of 
science  mean  by  scientific  method,  or  else  ignores  ele- 
ments which  in  religious  teaching  cannot  possibly  be 
ignored,  or  fails  to  make  proper  and  absolutely  neces- 
sary distinctions  between  religion  and  the  mere  ex- 
ternal data  by  which  religion  expresses  itself  to  the 
world.  But  there  seems  to  be  no  escape  from  the  con- 
clusion, even  most  superficially  viewed,  that,  where 
there  is  religious  instruction  in  the  true  sense,  the  para- 
mount authority  and  effective  dynamic  lies  in  the  per- 
sonality of  the  instructor. 

Nor  is  this  the  whole  argument  for  the  view  that 
there  is  a  significant  difference  between  the  method 
and  factors  of  scientific  and  religious  teaching.  It  is 
asserted  that  active  identification  with  the  cause  of  re- 
ligion by  a  teacher  of  philosophy,  the  branch  of 
knowledge  with  which  pedagogy  and  psychology  are 
most  closely  allied,  is  a  distinct  hindrance  to  efficiency 
in  this  department.  Professor  Royce,  of  Harvard 
University,  read  lately,  before  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Association  at  Washington,  a  paper  on  "  The 
Attitude  of  Teachers  of  Philosophy  toward  Religion," 
which,  after  stating  that  such  an  attitude  should  be 
"  frank  as  it  is  conciliatory,  as  judicially  critical  as  it 
is  reverently  earnest,  as  free  from  dogmatic  presump- 
tion as  it  is  from  indifference,"  has  the  following  pas- 
sage :  — 

"  For  the  rest,  I  am  glad  when,  under  the  condi- 
tions as  they  exist  to-day,  the  philosophical  teacher's 
convictions  are  such  that  he  sees  his  way  to  avoid  all 


Religious  Education  303 

connection  with  any  sect  or  form  of  the  visible  church. 
I  say,  I  am  glad  of  this  result  when  it  occurs;  because, 
first,  I  am  persuaded  that  a  personal  relation  to  the 
visible  church  has  to-day  a  value  which  concerns 
chiefly  the  man  engaged  in  certain  practical  philan- 
thropic tasks.  These  tasks  are  indeed  of  utmost  so- 
cial importance,  but  they  form  no  part  of  the  philoso- 
pher's peculiar  and  special  social  function  —  a  function 
that  I  have  already  characterized.  I  like  to  see  the 
philosopher  devoted  to  his  own  business.  And,  sec- 
ondly, as  I  hold,  the  philosopher,  by  holding  aloof  from 
the  visible  church,  helps  himself  to  maintain  in  him- 
self, and  to  display  to  his  students,  that  judicial  spirit 
which  I  have  insisted  upon  as  his  special  possession. 
The  mass  of  mankind  cannot  cultivate  this  judicial 
spirit,  except  as  a  mere  incident  of  their  practical  life. 
The  philosopher  has  to  make  it  his  professional  busi- 
ness, and  I  think,  therefore,  that  he  gains  by  an  avoid- 
ance of  relation  to  the  visible  church,  just  as  a  judge 
gains  by  declining  to  be  a  party  man.  To  the  invisible 
church  the  philosopher,  if  loyal  to  his  task,  inevitably 
belongs,  whatever  be  his  opinions.  And  it  is  to  the 
invisible  church  of  all  the  faithful  his  loyalty  is  due." 
Thus  science  and  philosophy  unite  in  making  con- 
ditions which  are  practically  impossible  in  religious  in- 
struction. Scientific  teaching  demands  that  what  is 
taught  must  have  impersonal  veraciousness,  capacity 
for  repetition,  utterly  without  relation  to  the  personal 
element  in  teacher  or  pupil,  no  concern  for  moral  qual- 
ity or  defect  in  either,  and  purely  responsive  to  an 
academic  standard  of  physical  or  intellectual  truthful- 


304    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

ness.  Philosophical  teaching,  according  to  one  of  its 
most  eminent  representatives  in  America,  gains 
in  judicial  spirit  and  poise  by  holding  aloof  from  all 
organized  religion  in  the  form  of  any  visible  church. 
As  religious  teaching  properly  viewed  cannot  produce 
the  first  condition,  it  must  necessarily  remain  outside 
the  sphere  denominated  scientific.  As  it  must  almost 
necessarily  be  allied  to  some  form  of  the  visible 
church,  it  must  lose  philosophical  poise  and  the  judicial 
spirit.  Is  anything  further  necessary  to  show  that 
religious  teaching  and  secular,  or  what  generally  may 
be  termed  scientific  teaching,  are  two  things,  in  which 
there  are  certain  deep,  fundamental,  and  ineradicable 
differences,  which  cannot  be  glossed  over,  and  which 
are  palpable,  permanent,  and  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count in  any  serious  and  fruitful  discussion  of  the  mat- 
ter of  religious  education? 


Ill 

We  have  shown  that  there  is  a  far-reaching  and 
fundamental  difference  between  the  method  which  is 
involved  in  dealing  with  the  factual  material  of  scien- 
tific phenomena,  and  that  which  takes  into  account  the 
personal  quality  of  the  teacher,  which  is  so  predomi- 
nant in  the  religious  sphere.  We  have  indicated,  with 
reasonable  clearness,  that  this  difference  is  recognized 
best  by  those  who  are  clearest  in  their  outlook,  and 
whose  judgment  is  least  controlled  by  merely  external 
conditions.  There  is  the  difference  indicated.  The 
question  now  is,  What  is  its  cause?     Here  again  we 


Religious  Education  305" 

must  not  be  dogmatic  or  persumptuous.  There  may- 
be more  than  one  explanation,  or  there  may  be  many 
elements  in  the  true  explanation.  We  propose  now 
to  give  an  outline  of  one  possible  explanation  of  the 
difference,  which  may  or  may  not  be  the  right  one, 
but  which  is  at  least  entitled  to  consideration  on  its 
merits. 

If,  as  we  have  shown  that  in  the  matter  of  religious 
instruction,  the  personal  quality  counts  for  more  than 
any  other  single  quality,  it  is  worth  while  to  inquire 
if  one  line  of  explication  may  not  lie  in  the  difference 
of  end  to  be  achieved  by  the  contrasting  methods  and 
points  of  view.  What,  for  example,  we  may  ask,  is 
the  end  to  be  achieved  in  making  a  given  experiment 
in  chemistry?  Is  it  the  transmission  of  so  much 
knowledge  of  the  physical  world?  Is  it  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  form  of  intellectual  approach  to  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  world,  or  is  it  the  attainment  of  a  men- 
tal discipline  which  will  result  in  a  well-developed, 
all-round  intellectual  life?  Probably  most  educated 
men  would  say,  that,  except  in  special  cases,  where  the 
aim  is  original  research  or  teaching,  the  chemistry 
which  the  average  student  is  taught,  partakes  of  all 
three  of  these  elements;  all,  however,  culminating 
usually  in  the  general  purpose  of  giving  a  thorough 
discipline  of  mind  and  an  academic  touch,  which  shall 
make  for  a  reasoning  and  reasonable  life.  This  is  in 
general  the  end  of  education.  When  it  has  more 
added  to  it,  it  becomes  technical  or  special  education. 
But  for  the  most  part  it  is  to  produce  reasonable  and 
reasoning  characters.     The  aim,  therefore,  of  all  such 


306    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

instruction,  is  academic  discipline.  Now  is  this  end 
the  one  which  we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  as  that 
in  which  religious  education  is  finally  to  emerge? 
When  we  think  of  religious  instruction,  do  we  think 
first  of  an  all-round  reasonable  approach  to  the  world, 
or  do  we  think  first  of  a  definite  special  alliance  of 
heart  and  purpose  with  God,  out  of  which  shall  come 
a  holy  and  a  godly  life?  Probably  the  scientific  in- 
structor would  say  that  a  reasonable  life  is  such  a  life. 
But  is  it?  Is  a  scientific  view  of  life  and  the  world 
necessarily  a  religious  one,  or  one  that  has  duty,  love, 
and  sacrifice  as  absolutely  necessary  elements? 

Again,  religious  instruction  almost  invariably  and 
almost  necessarily  allies  itself  with  institutional  life 
of  some  kind.  Certainly,  if  there  is  to  be  a  Bible 
school,  there  must  be  a  church  to  maintain  it.  And 
if  a  church  is  to  maintain  religious  instruction,  that  in- 
struction must  contemplate,  as  one  of  its  certain  re- 
sults, a  constant  inflow  into  its  ranks  of  those  who  are 
thus  instructed.  Is  not  this  the  fact?  Would  the 
great  mass  of  the  teachers  in  the  Bible  schools  of  the 
land  go  to  their  work  as  they  do,  voluntarily,  and 
without  compensation,  and  often  at  the  cost  of  time, 
strength,  and  sacrifice,  which  such  work  faithfully  per- 
formed requires,  were  there  not  behind  it  the  hope 
that  those  thus  taught  would  take  their  places  in  the 
Christian  church,  and  help  thus  to  perpetuate  the 
teaching,  the  inspiration,  and  the  faith  which  the 
Christian  gospel  inculcates?  Now  this  aim  of  itself 
must  count  for  much  in  the  instructor ;  and  the  degree 
with  which  he  sees  the  relation  of  his  instruction  to 


Religious  Education  307 

the  future  of  Christianity  in  the  life  of  the  world,  is 
usually  the  degree  of  his  efficiency  in  his  chosen  form 
of  Christian  work.  Of  course  this  is  propagandism. 
But  all  missionary  work  is  propagandism;  and,  unless 
we  are  prepared  to  affirm  that  all  missionary  work  is 
to  cease,  we  must  hold  that  the  spirit  of  propagandism 
is  a  necessary  element  in  religious  teaching.  And  is 
not  this  expressly  enjoined  in  the  New  Testament? 
What  else  does  the  command,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  disciple  all  nations,"  mean,  if  not  this? 
We  think  that  the  difference  of  aim  between  the  form 
of  instruction  which  contemplates  merely  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  individual  life  on  the  side  of  its  own  ap- 
proach to  an  understanding  of  the  world,  and  that 
which  regards  the  subject-matter  of  its  teaching  as 
life-giving  and  fundamental  to  happiness  and  joy  in 
the  world,  to  say  nothing  at  all  about  the  question  of 
relation  to  Jesus  Christ,  may  account  for  a  good  share 
of  the  difference  between  these  two  methods  of 
teaching. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  reason,  and  one  which  is  much 
more  satisfying;  namely,  that  the  religious  teacher  is 
endeavoring  not  so  much  to  discipline,  that  is  train, 
as  to  create,  life.  He  is  working  not  in  the  factual 
region  of  data,  but  in  the  spiritual  region  of  motive. 
He  must,  to  be  sure,  deal  with  facts,  but  only  as  facts 
suggest  motives,  and  as  motives  lead  to  decisions 
which  involve  creative  purposes  and  personal  trans- 
formations. To  point  out  the  evils  of  selfishness  with 
all  the  abounding  illustrations  which  are  lying  about 
everywhere,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  creating 


3o8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  motive  to  adopt  an  unselfish  life.  The  one  may 
be  done  by  a  selfish  person,  one  with  only  a  slender 
equipment  of  unselfishness.  But  whosoever  would 
move  men  to  be  unselfish,  or  teach  children  and  youth 
to  be  such  persons,  must  not  only  show  the  evils  that 
follow  in  the  train  of  selfishness,  but  illustrate  the  un- 
selfish life  also  and  at  the  same  time;  and  the  latter 
fact  gives  the  teaching  authority  and  power.  This  is 
true  in  the  area  of  simple  ethics.  When  we  come  to 
the  sphere  of  religion,  the  thing  is  tenfold  more  im- 
portant. To  convey  the  idea  of  relationship  to  God, 
sonship  in  fact;  to  show  the  joy  of  such  a  relation, 
and  its  power  and  worth  in  life,  requires  not  knowl- 
edge first,  but  godliness  as  the  primary  equipment  for 
successful  teaching.  We  take  it  that  most  of  us  still 
believe  that  men  turn  to  God  under  the  persuasion  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  it  is  the  Spirit  that  "  con- 
vinces of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment"  Is 
not  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  for  example,  with  the 
hope  that  those  taught  will  be  impressed  sufficiently  to 
become  the  proper  and  obedient  subjects  of  the  Spirit's 
teaching  and  guidance,  a  totally  different  object  from 
that  we  have  described  as  one  of  academic  discipline? 
And  is  not  the  difference  a  world-wide  one  in  content, 
outlook,  form  of  procedure,  and  general  spiritual  ex- 
pectation? Why  is  it  that  we  feel  it  just  and  right, 
and  altogether  fitting,  to  pray  on  beginning  such  a 
task,  while  we  cannot  but  feel  a  certain  incongruity 
in  asking  God  to  cause  certain  chemical  reactions  to 
take  place,  or  certain  geometrical  propositions  to  prove 
true?    What  is  there  about  the  teaching  of  a  Bible 


Religious  Education  309 

lesson  that  makes  the  devotional  attitude  artistically 
exact,  and  that  renders  the  same  attitude  with  refer- 
ence to  a  problem  in  surveying,  ludicrous?  Is  it  not 
that,  under  one  form,  the  teacher's  own  relation  to 
God  is  a  part  of  the  task,  and  that  the  vital  and  im- 
portant part? 

We  cannot  but  believe  that  the  spiritual  equipment 
of  the  teacher  of  religion  —  which  equipment  is  not 
an  academic,  but  a  devotional  or  spiritual,  product  — 
is  of  the  first  and  most  far-reaching  importance  in  the 
discussion  of  this  whole  problem.  It  is  the  confusion 
of  ideas  alone  that  raises  the  hope  that  mere  revision 
of  academic  method  will  lift  us  out  of  our  Slough  of 
Despond,  and  set  us  upon  the  highway  of  effective  re- 
ligious instruction.  Thoroughness  of  identification, 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  with  the  ultimate  things 
which  he  seeks  to  see  produced  in  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  his  pupil,  is  the  first  and  the  greatest  object 
to  be  achieved  in  any  really  effective  reformation 
among  us,  in  the  matter  of  teaching  religion. 

The  view  here  expressed  has  lately  found  utterance 
in  the  singularly  clear  and  felicitous  discussion  of 
some  of  the  fundamental  moods  and  facts  of  life  by 
Carl  Hilty  in  his  little  volume  on  "  Happiness,  Essays 
on  the  Meaning  of  Life."  Professor  Hilty  is  the  pro- 
fessor of  Constitutional  Law  in  the  University  of 
Berne,  Switzerland,  and  has  no  particular  school  of 
theology  or  philosophy  in  mind.  Speaking  simply  as 
an  observer  of  life  and  life  relations  and  influences,  he 
remarks  on  the  subject  of  idealism  and  religion:  "  No 
one  becomes  an  idealist  by  being  taught  about  it  or  by 


310    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

reasoning  concerning  it.  Nor  is  this  so  strange  as  it 
might  seem,  for  the  very  trustworthiness  of  the  human 
reason  itself  is  proved  to  us  only  by  experience.  The 
very  truths  of  religion  remain  unproved  unless  the 
moral  power  issues  from  them  which  provides  their 
proof.  That  which  has  power  must  have  reality.  No 
other  proof  of  reality  is  final.  Even  our  senses  could 
not  convince  us  if  our  experience  and  the  experience 
of  other  men  did  not  assure  us  that  we  could  —  not 
unconditionally,  but  under  normal  conditions  —  trust 
them  not  to  deceive.  That  which  brings  conviction  to 
one  is  his  experience,  and  that  which  rouses  in  him 
the  desire  and  inward  disposition  to  believe  in  his  own 
experience  is  the  testimony  of  others  who  have  had 
that  experience  themselves."  Here  we  have  a  per- 
fectly lucid  and  untheological  statement  of  what  most 
men  know  to  be  the  facts  concerning  themselves,  and 
in  it  the  element  of  a  believing  and  experienced  per- 
sonality is  seen  to  be  the  supreme  factor,  not  merely 
in  the  matter  of  the  religious  experience  itself,  but  in 
the  sustaining  of  confidence  in  the  human  reason, 
which  is  its  ultimate  court  of  appeal. 

This  again  is  true,  because  it  springs  from  the  qual- 
ity of  disinterestedness,  which  lies  at  the  base  of  all 
genuine  religion.  This  quality  allies  religion  much 
more  with  art  than  with  science  or  philosophy;  and, 
for  this  reason,  poetry  and  song  have  been  the  favorite 
vehicles  for  the  truest  expression  of  genuinely  reli- 
gious ideas  and  emotions.  A  recent  writer  on  this 
subject  has  a  passage  which,  to  our  mind,  is  suggestive 
in  the  extreme :     "  What  message  has  Shakespeare, 


Religious  Education  311 

Milton,  Dante,  Virgil,  or  any  true  poet  ?  The  message 
we  have  the  power  to  draw  from  him,  and  no  two  of 
us  will  draw  the  same.  Art  is  a  circle ;  it  is  complete 
within  itself;  it  returns  ever  upon  itself.  There  is 
no  great  poetry  without  great  ideas  and  yet  the  ideas 
must  exist  as  impulse,  will,  emotion,  and  not  lie  upon 
the  surface  as  formulas.  The  enemies  of  art  are  re- 
flection, special  ideas,  conscious  intellectual  processes, 
because  these  things  isolate  us,  and  shut  us  off  from 
the  life  of  the  whole,  from  that  which  we  reach 
through  our  sentiments  and  emotions."  Substitute 
for  "  art "  the  word  "  religion,"  and  it  remains  almost 
as  true.  It  is  the  same  author,  Mr.  John  Burroughs, 
who  says :  "  Teaching  literature  is  like  teaching  reli- 
gion. You  can  give  only  the  dry  bones  of  the  mat- 
ter in  either  case.  But  the  dry  bones  of  theology  [he 
might  have  added  literary  and  historical  criticism]  are 
not  religion,  and  the  dry  bones  of  rhetoric  are  not  lit- 
erature. .  .  .  From  every  art  certain  rules  and  prin- 
ciples may  be  deduced ;  but  the  intelligent  apprehension 
of  these  rules  and  principles  no  more  leads  to  mastery 
in  that  art,  or  even  helps  in  the  mastery  of  it,  than 
a  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  and  the  vital  processes 
of  the  stomach  helps  a  man  to  digest  his  dinner,  or 
than  the  knowledge  of  the  gunsmith  helps  make  a  good 
marksman.  ...  To  be  a  fiddler  you  must  fiddle  and 
see  others  fiddle;  to  be  a  painter  you  must  paint  and 
study  the  painting  of  others ;  to  be  a  writer  you  must 
write  and  familiarize  yourself  with  the  works  of  the 
best  authors.  Studying  an  author  from  the  outside 
by  bringing  the  light  of  rhetoric  to  bear  upon  him  is 


312    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  little  profit.  We  must  get  inside  of  him,  and  we 
can  only  get  inside  of  him  through  sympathy  and  ap- 
preciation. .  .  .  The  laboratory  way  may  give  one  the 
dry  bones  of  the  subject,  but  not  the  living  thing  it- 
self." Insert  here  in  the  appropriate  places  the  words 
"  religion  "  and  "  Bible,"  and  you  have  a  pretty  truth- 
ful record  of  how  most  of  the  effective  Christian  work 
of  the  world  has  been  done,  and  is  being  done.  Sym- 
pathy and  appreciation,  which  are  personal  qualities 
springing  from  personal  experiences  of  like  character, 
form  the  basis  of  effective  Christian  teaching,  and  in 
fact  of  all  religious  teaching.  And  these  are  not 
taught  by  academic  processes.  They  are  the  product 
of  that  continuous  activity  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the 
hearts  of  men  by  which  truth  is  revealed  as  truth,  and 
is  translated  into  life  and  service. 


lY 

Every  educated  man,  and  in  fact  every  man  who 
is  intelligent  enough  to  be  familiar  with  the  intellectual 
and  scientific  movements  which  are  now  in  progress, 
knows  that  in  the  matter  of.  education  there  is  a  so- 
called  atmosphere,  which  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
elements  in  the  whole  business  of  education.  Every 
university  has  an  atmosphere,  which  makes  or  does 
not  make  for  certain  things.  This  is  the  reason  why, 
from  time  to  time,  as  the  old  graduate  goes  back  to 
visit  his  alma  mater,  he  is  very  severely  tried  to  find 
that  the  spirit  of  the  place  has  so  completely  changed 
that  he  often  feels  sorry  that  he  came.     The  atmos- 


Religious  Education  313 

phere  is  different.  The  things  which  were  uppermost 
in  his  time  have  vanished,  and  other  things  are  su- 
preme. Now  this  prevailing  temper,  or  point  of  view, 
is  the  real  point  of  departure  of  all  education,  and 
especially  of  religious  education.  The  young  student 
goes  to  college  with  all  his  home-bred  habits  of  steadi- 
ness, self-restraint,  and  sobriety.  He  finds  very  soon 
that  the  practises  with  which  he  is  surrounded,  and 
the  standards  by  which  he  is  judged,  are  very  much 
broader  and  less  exacting  than  those  with  which  he 
was  formerly  acquainted.  Gradually  his  own  stand- 
ards take  on  the  qualities  of  those  which  prevail 
around  him.  He  does  not  consciously  abandon  any 
idea  which  he  held  before,  or  deliberately  vacate  his 
views  on  given  questions  of  morality  or  conduct:  he 
simply  extends  his  practice  to  fit  those  who  are  in 
constant  contact  with  him,  and  makes  the  doctrine 
which  he  held  before  sufficiently  elastic  to  include  his 
present  practises.  Now  this  is  exactly  the  procedure 
which  has  taken  place  in  the  last  twenty-five  years  in 
the  religious  life  of  the  nation.  Many  a  man  who 
would  fight  with  all  his  might  to-day  for  his  ortho- 
doxy, in  practise  nullifies  every  fragment  of  moral 
standing-ground  upon  which  it  rests.  The  vocabulary 
of  morality  and  religion  has  greatly  increased,  and 
brought  into  the  sphere  of  quasi-religion  many  things 
which  are  only  forms  of  philanthropy;  in  fact,  so 
much  is  this  the  case,  that  many,  like  Professor  Royce, 
think  that  the  only  good  reason  for  belonging  to  a 
church  is  the  attainment  of  some  practical  philan- 
thropic aim.    Severe  thought  the  church  no  longer  ex- 


314    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

acts  of  its  worshipers.  But  this  is  not  all :  it  makes  no 
more  severer  drafts  on  faith  or  behavior.  And  this 
general  extension  of  what  is,  so  to  speak,  religiously 
tolerable,  has  produced  a  religious  demoralization 
which  has  made  an  atmosphere  in  most  churches  which 
is  itself  the  greatest  bar  to  religious  teaching  of  any 
effective  kind.  Some  years  ago  the  late  Mr.  E.  L. 
Godkin,  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  wrote 
an  essay  on  the  subject  "  The  Church  and  Good  Con- 
duct," in  which,  stern,  unyielding  logician  that  he  was, 
and  relentless  pursuer  of  shams  as  well,  he  stated  some 
things  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  mere  observer  of 
men  which  may  be  interesting  to  theologians.  It 
should  be  said  that  for  theology  Mr.  Godkin  had  the 
supremest  contempt.  He  could  hardly  speak  with  re- 
spect of  the  ministerial  profession  as  regards  its  claim 
to  intellectual  recognition  and  worth ;  but  he  saw  some 
things  steadily  and  clearly  enough,  notwithstanding. 
Speaking  of  the  Unitarian  effort  to  make  Christ's  in- 
fluence and  authority  rest  on  his  moral  teachings  and 
example  "  without  the  support  of  a  divine  nature  or 
mission,"  he  says  that  the  attempt  has  "  failed.  The 
Christian  church  cannot  be  held  together  as  a  great 
social  force  by  his  teaching  or  example  as  a  moral 
philosopher.  A  church  organized  on  this  theory 
speedily  becomes  a  lecture  association  or  a  philan- 
thropic club.  .  .  .  Christ's  sermons  need  the  touch  of 
supernatural  authority  to  make  them  impressive 
enough  for  the  work  of  social  regeneration;  and  his 
life  was  too  uneventful,  and  the  society  in  which  he 
lived  too  simple,  to  give  his  example  real  power  over 


Religious  Education  315 

the  imagination  of  a  modern  man  who  regards  him 
simply  as  a  social  reformer."  Speaking  further  on 
the  moral  decline  of  the  church,  and  especially  its  loss 
of  moral  authority,  he  adds  these  very  impressive 
words :  "  Church-membership  ought  to  involve  dis- 
cipline of  some  kind,  in  order  to  furnish  moral  aid. 
It  ought,  that  is  to  say,  to  impose  some  restraint  on 
people's  inclinations  the  operation  of  which  will  be 
visible  and  enforced  by  some  external  sanction.  If, 
in  short.  Christians  are  to  be  regarded  as  more  trust- 
worthy, and  as  living  on  a  higher  moral  plane  than  the 
rest  of  the  world,  they  must  furnish  stronger  evidence 
of  their  sincerity  than  is  now  exacted  of  them  in  the 
shape  of  plain  and  open  self-denial.  The  church,  in 
short,  must  be  an  organization  held  together  by  some 
stronger  ties  than  enjoyment  of  weekly  music  and 
oratory  in  a  pretty  building,  and  alms-giving  which 
entails  no  sacrifice,  and  often  is  only  a  tickler  of  social 
vanity.  .  ,  .  The  practise  of  the  church  will  have  to 
be  forced  up  to  its  own  theory  of  its  character  and 
mission,  which  would  involve  serious  collision  with 
some  of  the  most  deeply-rooted  habits  and  ideas  of 
modern  social  and  political  life.  That  there  is  any 
immediate  probability  of  this  we  do  not  believe.  Un- 
til it  is  brought  about,  members  must  make  up  their 
minds  to  have  religious  professions  treated  by  some 
as  but  slight  guarantees  of  character,  and  by  others  as 
but  cloaks  for  wrong-doing,  hard  as  this  may  be  for 
that  large  majority  to  whom  they  are  an  honest  ex- 
pression of  sure  hopes  and  noble  aims." 

It  is  the  serious  judgment  of  the  present  writer. 


3i6    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

that  this  quotation  touches  the  sore  spot  which  we  are 
trying  to  heal  to-day  by  means  of  a  new  system  of 
instruction.  The  question  is  not  fundamentally  one 
of  intellectual  method  after  all.  It  is  a  question  of 
moral  demand  and  of  spiritual  power.  The  modern 
church  has  in  it  little  of  the  atmosphere  which  is  itself 
an  education  in  benevolence  and  righteousness.  It 
lacks  the  great  force  which  comes  of  numerous  majes- 
tic spiritual  natures  who  are  giving  the  visible  evidence 
that  their  religious  life  is  something  more  than  weekly 
aesthetic  enjoyment,  and  appreciation  of  the  efforts  of 
a  body  of  earnest  men  to  steadily  extend  for  them  the 
area  of  the  enjoyable  things  of  life  into  which  they 
may  come  without  loss  of  Christian  status  or  charac- 
ter. The  one  thing  which  must  impress  every  careful 
thinker  on  this  subject  is  the  paucity  of  the  require- 
ments which  are  made  for  membership  in  the  church. 
In  fact,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  as  Mr.  Godkin  in 
another  paragraph  does  say,  that  "  of  late  years  the 
church  has  been  making  a  gallant  effort  to  provide 
accommodations  for  the  successful,  and  enable  them 
to  be  good  Christians  without  sacrificing  any  of  the 
good  things  of  life,  and  in  fact,  without  surrendering 
anything  they  enjoy,  or  favoring  the  outside  public 
with  any  recognizable  proof  of  their  sincerity." 

This  attitude  of  the  church  itself  is  a  vastly  greater 
factor  in  the  problem  of  religious  training  than  are 
any  mere  changes  of  method,  or  the  introduction  of 
new  principles  of  pedagogy,  or  even  changes  in  the 
conception  of  the  psychological  elements  of  religion. 
Character  is  built  up,  and  moral  strength  comes,  by 


Religious  Education  317 

being  compelled  to  do  those  things  which  are  not  spe- 
cially pleasant,  and  which  are  outside  the  domain  of 
aesthetic  enjoyment.  The  modern  theory  of  the  reli- 
gious life  seems,  for  the  most  part,  utterly  to  ignore 
this  fact.  It  seems  to  imagine  that  the  world  has 
neither  interest  nor  right  in  calling  for  proof  that 
protestations  of  religious  devotion  are  sustained  by 
sacrifices  in  life.  It  was  no  careless,  thoughtless  man 
who  made  the  observations  just  quoted,  but  one  of  the 
strongest  intellects  of  the  generation  just  passed  away. 
The  theory  of  the  religious  life  itself  needs  to  be  re- 
examined; but  we  need  to  discover,  first  of  all,  just 
what  the  nature  of  the  religious  life  to  which  the 
young  are  to  be  led  is,  and  what  its  practical  demands 
and  bearings  are,  before  we  set  about  a  new  form  of 
the  Sisyphean  task  of  rolling  this  great  human  prob- 
lem up  the  hill  of  intellectual  theory  again,  only  to 
have  it  roll  down  upon  us  once  more.  The  young  will 
feel  the  impulse  and  the  power  of  religion  tenfold 
more  in  a  single  example  of  sacrifice  on  the  part  of 
their  religious  instructors  than  in  all  the  theory  and 
method  in  the  world.  A  daring  personage,  the  other 
day,  questioned  whether  the  church  as  constituted  to- 
day was  a  suitable  place  to  teach  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ.  This  was,  of  course,  startling,  ill-mannered, 
and  severe.  But  certainly  the  contrast  between  the 
theory  of  the  church  and  the  actual  life  of  the  church 
is  marked,  impressive,  and  uncomfortable.  It  is  this 
contrast  that  nullifies  the  undoubtedly  biblical,  faith- 
ful, and  sound  teaching  of  many  pulpits.  It  is  this 
failure  to  provide  the  working  model  which  makes  all 


3i8    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

our  appeals  of  none  effect,  and  more  than  all  creates 
the  atmosphere  alien  to  the  growth  of  religion: 

The  distressing  and  unquestionable  fact  is,  that 
many  of  the  church  people  are  not  religious  people. 
And  many  churches  are  not  properly  churches,  but 
Sunday  audiences  which,  in  general  character  and  re- 
spectability, are  somewhat  above  the  average,  but  gov- 
erned by  essentially  the  same  ideals,  and  ready  to 
enforce  about  the  same  standards,  that  are  applied  to 
the  theater,  the  concert,  and  the  lecture  platform.  If 
the  services  give  pleasure  and  are  enjoyable,  all  is  well. 
If  they  become  too  severe  either  intellectually  or  in 
moral  demand,  or  too  uncomfortable  in  their  search- 
ingness,  the  average  church-member  holds  that  it  is  his 
alienable  right  to  go  where  more  satisfactory  condi- 
tions prevail.  That  this  has  its  effect  upon  the  vast 
body  of  the  Protestant  clergy,  who  are  dependent 
upon  the  good-will  of  the  congregation  for  support, 
is  beyond  denial.  And  it  is  this  fact  which  has 
brought  about  the  religious  and  moral  decline,  which 
has  now  reached  the  secondary  stage  of  crass  ignor- 
ance, on  the  part  of  a  large  body  of  the  constituency 
of  the  Christian  church,  concerning  the  Bible,  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  and  in  fact  all  that  makes  for  a  distinc- 
tive religious,  as  contrasted  with  a  worldly,  life.  To 
hope  that  this  situation  can  be  remedied  by  better  in- 
struction in  the  Bible,  even  by  the  most  enlightened 
methods,  is  in  our  judgment  a  great  error.  To  sup- 
pose that  it  is  a  question  entirely  of  theological  view 
is  equally  foolish.  Where  there  is  a  genuinely  sac- 
rificial life  enacting  in  the  full  view  of  mankind,  no- 


Religious  Education  319 

body  cares  whether  it  is  governed  by  a  broad,  a  Hberal, 
or  a  conservative  theology.  Few  people  care  to  know 
whether  the  man  thus  illustrating  his  religion  is  of 
one  denomination  or  another.  Not  many  are  dis- 
turbed even  if  he  has  numberless  personal  eccentrici- 
ties, if  these  are  seen  to  have  no  bearing  on  the  main 
question.  It  is  the  union  of  teaching  and  life  that 
tells  the  story,  and  that  persuades.  It  is  teaching  by 
example  which,  after  all,  is  the  most  effective  teach- 
ing known  to  man.  The  factor  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  habitual  moral  and  religious  tone  of  the  church, 
as  furnishing  the  medium  in  which  religious  ideas  are 
absorbed,  is  more  important  even  than  the  factor  of  a 
strong  religious  personality. 

V 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  discussion  of  this 
subject  which  quite  curiously  seems  to  be  left  out  of 
most  of  the  utterances  concerning  it.  It  is  the  rela- 
tion of  instruction  and  advocacy  in  the  matter  of  reli- 
gious teaching.  The  prevailing  theory  of  religious 
teaching  seems  to  be,  that  the  facts  of  religion,  and 
especially  the  facts  of  biblical  history,  can  be  taught 
in  a  perfectly  dispassionate  way,  and  that  this  is  reli- 
gious teaching.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  not 
religious  teaching,  and  cannot  ever  become  such.  Nor 
is  the  principle  which  is  implied  in  this  statement  con- 
fined entirely  to  the  domain  of  religion.  In  Mr.  Web- 
ster's great  speech  on  Samuel  Dexter,  he  uses  these 
words :     "  He  had  studied  the  Constitution  that  he 


320   Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

might  defend  it.  He  had  examined  its  principles  that 
he  might  maintain  them.  .  .  .  Aloof  from  technicali- 
ties, and  unfettered  by  artificial  rules,  such  a  question 
[one  of  constitutional  law]  gave  opportunity  for  that 
deep  and  clear  analysis,  that  mighty  grasp  of  princi- 
ple, which  so  much  distinguished  his  higher  efforts. 
His  very  statement  was  argument.  His  inference 
seemed  demonstration.  The  earnestness  of  his  oum 
conviction  wrought  conviction  in  others.  One  was 
convinced,  and  believed,  and  assented,  because  it  was 
gratifying,  delightful,  to  think,  to  feel,  and  believe,  in 
unison  with  an  intellect  of  such  evident  superiority." 
This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  pen  pictures  of  a 
great  man  by  a  man,  as  a  recent  writer  has  remarked, 
who  was  himself  the  embodiment  of  precisely  these 
things.  Mr.  Webster  is  here  dealing  with  a  great 
student  and  expounder  of  constitutional  law.  He 
was  himself  foremost  among  Americans  in  this  same 
field.  It  is,  therefore,  doubly  interesting  to  notice  the 
elements  upon  which  Mr.  Webster  lays  stress  in  the 
matter  of  securing  assent  and  allegiance  for  the  the- 
ories of  the  Constitution  for  which  Mr.  Dexter  stood, 
and  for  which  Mr.  Webster  himself  stood. 

Notice,  first  of  all,  that  the  great  advocate  accentu- 
ates the  motive  which  governed  Dexter  in  his  study 
of  the  Constitution  and  its  underlying  principles. 
"  He  studied  the  Constitution  that  he  might  defend 
it."  This  is  no  accidental  choice  of  words.  Mr. 
Webster  knew  exactly  what  he  meant  when  he  chose 
the  word  "  defend."     Now  the  teaching  of  religion. 


Religious  Education  321 

in  a  peculiar  and  exceptional  sense,  requires  just  this 
element.  Religious  opinions,  and  especially  religious 
faith,  are  always  in  danger  of  assault  by  the  careless, 
the  unbelieving,  and  the  ungodly.  It  is  notorious  that 
no  opinions  in  this  world  have  to  run  the  gauntlet  of 
indifference  and  hostility  to  the  degree  that  religious 
opinions  do.  Therefore  it  requires,  in  a  peculiar  and 
exceptional  sense,  an  underpinning  of  conviction 
girded  with  weapons  of  defense.  If  a  great  consti- 
tutional lawyer  was  great  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
federal  Constitution  because  the  motive  power  of  his 
study  was  the  defense  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
principles  which  it  contained,  it  is  of  tenfold  more 
importance  that  those  who  teach  the  Bible,  and  under- 
take to  give  religious  training  to  the  young,  shall 
speak  out  of  a  conviction  and  an  attachment  which 
amounts  to  advocacy.  Of  course  this  opens  one  to 
the  charge  of  partisanship  or  sectarianism  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree.  But  the  alternative,  as  we  have  al- 
ready shown,  is  Professor  Royce's  no-churchism. 
Religious  teaching  requires,  for  effectiveness,  belief 
in  the  doctrines  taught,  and  anxiety  that  they  who  are 
taught  shall  not  merely  get  information,  but  shall  ac- 
quire conviction.  Who  cares  how  eloquently  the 
orator  sets  forth  the  party  principles  if  the  votes  are 
not  won?  Who  cares  how  exquisitely  a  text  may  be 
expounded  or  the  historical  setting  may  be  displayed, 
if  the  net  result  is  to  produce  people  who  simply  stand 
twirling  tidbits  of  unusual  information  around  in  their 
minds,  and,  while  always  learning,  never  arrive  at  a 


322    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

knowledge  of  sufficient  truth  to  enable  them  to  iden- 
tify themselves  with  the  cause  of  Christianity  in  the 
world ! 

Observe  again,  if  you  please,  the  vocabulary  which 
Mr.  Webster  employs  in  speaking  of  Samuel  Dexter's 
persuasiveness  in  his  pleading :  "  One  was  convinced, 
and  believed,  and  assented."  Is  not  this  the  language 
which  we  habitually  employ  in  religion  ?  Is  it  not  the 
supremest  purpose  of  all  Christian  teaching  to  con- 
vince, to  cause  to  believe,  and  to  win  assent?  And 
if,  as  Mr.  Webster  says,  conviction,  namely  a  position 
to  maintain  and  uphold,  is  necessary  to  secure  these 
results  in  the  law,  how  much  more  true  is  it  in  the 
matter  of  religion!  The  attitude  of  intellectual 
catholicity  in  these  matters  is  the  merest  pretense. 
Men  cannot  be  colorless  in  religion.  Convictions  are 
convictions  precisely  because  they  have  color,  and  are 
differentiated  from  other  convictions.  The  idea  that 
religion  can  be  taught,  or  that  anything  but  the  barest 
facts  of  religious  history  can  be  taught,  without  at 
the  same  time  having  in  the  teacher  a  great  passion 
to  win  the  pupil  to  his  own  view  and  to  his  own  atti- 
tude of  obedience  and  reverence,  is  as  absurd  as  to 
imagine  that  merely  to  cause  a  sick. man  to  look  at  a 
prescription  is  to  take  effective  measures  for  his  res- 
toration. Oftentimes  the  prescription  of  the  spiritual 
physician  may  also  be  in  a  foreign  language.  But 
just  as  often  the  taking  of  the  medicine  brings  spir- 
itual health  and  strength.  Surely  the  phenomena  of 
various  wide-spread  and  current  superstitions  among 
us  ought  not  to  be  lost  upon  us.     Surely  we  ought  to 


Religious  Education  323 

have  learned  by  this  time  that  giving  expositions  and 
treatises  upon  the  various  elements  of  religion  is  not 
inculcating  faith,  or  producing  the  conditions  ante- 
cedent to  a  religious  Hfe. 

The  objective  point  in  religious  instruction  is  to 
convince:  that  involves  advocacy.  Its  purpose  is  to 
secure  belief:  that  involves  conviction.  Its  aim  is 
to  gain  assent:  that  involves  faith  in  the  thing  ex- 
pounded. And  this  advocacy  is  of  paramount  impor- 
tance. It  might,  once  for  all,  be  accepted  as  a  truth, 
that  most  people  never  will  attain  the  judicial  attitude 
described  by  Professor  Royce;  or,  having  attained  it, 
will  be  happy,  useful,  or  religiously  inspired  by  impar- 
tial aloofness  from  the  church  and  her  fellowship  and 
ordinances.  This  everlasting  attitude  of  neutrality, 
this  eternal  balancing  of  probabilities,  is  both  prac- 
tically useless  and  logically  defective.  This  interroga- 
tive attitude  in  the  schools  has  sent  forth  a  type  of 
men  who  cannot  be  relied  upon  in  any  emergency  to 
grapple  decisively  with  the  great  facts  of  life;  and 
the  whole  municipal  situation  in  the  United  States 
proves  it.  It  has  sent  forth  moral  indeterminates ; 
and  the  facts  in  the  change  of  the  character  of  the 
criminal  population  show  that.  It  has  sent  forth  as 
allies  and  substitutes  for  the  grafter  of  low  degree, 
the  grafter  of  high  degree,  whose  veneer  of  civiliza- 
tion has  been  but  the  effective  disguise  for  deeper 
iniquity  and  greater  shame.  We  are  not  advocating 
now  any  particular  theory  either  of  religion  or  the- 
ology. The  bigotry  which  has  characterized  the  lit- 
eralists  of  other  days,  is  in  some  ways  more  than 


324    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

matched  by  the  bigotry  of  the  literalists  of  our  own 
day.  The  vocabulary  of  scholastic  vagueness  and  un- 
certainty has  grown  tenfold  faster  than  has  the  de- 
velopment of  scholastic  announcement  of  effective 
principles.  We  appeal  from  the  indeterminate  dis- 
penser of  religion,  to  the  advocate  of  the  Christianity 
of  Jesus  Christ.  All  religious  teaching  involves  ad- 
vocacy, belief,  conviction,  and  determination  to  win 
assent,  as  conditions  sine  qua  non  of  power  and  per- 
suasiveness. We  have  the  authority  of  the  foremost 
name  in  the  history  of  American  constitutional  law, 
that  this  is  true  in  that  sphere.  It  is  vastly  more  true 
in  religion  than  it  ever  can  be  in  the  law.  Better  far 
indefensible  doctrine  with  a  brave  heart  and  an  un- 
swerving faith  behind  it,  than  a  defensible  doctrine 
with  a  wavering,  insecure,  dilettante  proclaiming  it. 
We  plead  for  conviction  in  teaching.  We  do  not  now 
discuss  the  quality  or  the  character  of  the  conviction. 
Let  those  who  hold  one  class  of  theories  take  them 
bravely,  faithfully,  and  aggressively  into  the  school- 
room, the  Bible  school,  and  the  pulpit.  Let  us  have 
determinate,  intelligible  teaching  from  men  who  be- 
lieve in  their  teaching.  Let  those  who  hold  other 
theories  do  likewise  with  theirs.  By  their  fruits  shall 
ye  know  them  all.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  inde- 
terminate attitude  can  be  successfully  maintained  in 
many  of  the  sciences.  But  whether  that  be  the  case 
or  not,  it  is  certain  that  religious  teaching  must  have 
behind  it  religious  conviction;  that  the  teacher  of  reli- 
gion must  be  an  advocate  for  the  thing  which  he  is 
set  to  teach.     If  this  means  that  he  is  classified  and 


Religious  Education  325 

limited  as  to  range  and  area  of  power,  then  that  is 
simply  saying,  that  what  he  loses  in  extensiveness,  he 
may  gain,  and  usually  does  gain,  in  intensiveness. 
But  it  is  as  clear  as  noonday  that  we  must  teach  the 
Bible,  to  maintain  its  principles;  that  we  must  speak 
out  of  such  warmth,  such  belief,  such  love,  and  such 
faith,  that,  to  use  Mr.  Webster's  phrase  once  more, 
the  earnestness  of  our  conviction  shall  create  convic- 
tion in  others ;  that  men  may  be  convinced,  may  believe 
and  may  assent,  because  it  is  gratifying,  delightful, 
to  think,  to  feel,  and  to  believe  with  intellects  of  such 
evident  superiority.  We  may  not  convince  them  of 
our  intellectual  superiority,  but  it  is  our  great  privilege 
and  our  unquestionable  purpose  to  prove  to  them  the 
superiority  of  the  belief  and  faith  by  which  our  own 
lives  are  governed  and  regulated,  that  they  may  seek 
it  for  themselves.  The  instruction  which  has  no  ad- 
vocacy behind  it  may  be  academically  sufficient.  It 
will  never  be  religious  instruction  until  to  it  is  added 
a  passion  for  winning  adherents  and  allies. 

VI 

From  what  has  already  been  said,  a  few  general 
inferences  and  working  principles  on  the  general  re- 
lation of  academic  discipline  and  religious  teaching 
may  be  gained,  which  may  well  be  made  the  basis  for 
further  thought  on  the  subject.  They  are  offered 
here,  not  as  finalities,  and  not  at  all  as  embodying  any- 
thing other  than  a  certain  measure  of  experience  and 
observation  in  the  matter  under  discussion.    They 


326    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

represent,  however,  so  far  as  they  go,  what  we  think 
every  working  minister  can  verify  in  his  own  parish, 
and  what  every  Christian  worker  of  even  the  most 
limited  experience  knows  to  be  approximately  true. 

1.  It  may  be  laid  down  then,  first,  among  the  infer- 
ences and  conclusions  from  what  we  have  said,  that  no 
amount  of  academic  discipline  in  the  materials  of 
religious  knowledge  necessarily  emerges  in  religious 
instruction.  This  is  one  of  the  fundamental  differ- 
ences between  the  methods  prevailing  in  general  be- 
tween the  study  of  the  sciences  and  training  in  reli- 
gion. Biblical  knowledge  does  not  carry  with  it  ex- 
perience of  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  and,  ipso  facto, 
biblical  instruction  is  not  religious  instruction.  It 
obviously  requires  something  more  than  the  materials 
of  religious  knowledge,  and  something  more  than  his- 
torical data  and  linguistic  equipment,  to  produce 
capacity  for  adequately  and  effectively  inspiring  in 
students  and  others  the  spiritual  desires  which  ulti- 
mately result  in  the  religion  of  the  Bible.  Hence 
effort  along  this  line,  while  useful  and  instructive  for 
other  purposes,  gives  us  no  substantial  hope  that  in 
this  direction  shall  we  find  light  upon  the  perplexities 
involved  in  the  need  and  general  craving  for  religious 
education. 

2.  The  disciplinary  function  in  a  religious  educa- 
tion is  always  subordinate  to  the  element  of  repro- 
ductive personality.  That  the  teaching  of  religion 
has  a  disciplinary  side,  no  one  would  care  to  deny. 
But  that  it  is  always  subordinate  to  the  element  of 
personal  love  and  quality  of  character  as  operative 


Religious  Education  327 

forces,  is  also  beyond  question.  H^re  again  we  have 
one  of  the  essential  contrasts  between  the  method  of 
the  sciences  and  that  of  religion.  Experiments  in 
chemistry  or  mathematics  may  be  repeated  without 
regard  to  moral  or  personal  qualities  of  any  kind 
whatever.  There  is  no  need  for  communion  between 
the  student  and  the  teacher,  either  in  local  conditions, 
moral  outlook,  or  relations  of  life.  All  these  are  of 
imperative  importance  in  teaching  religion.  Chris- 
tian teaching  involves  the  elements  of  spiritual  fellow- 
ship and  mutuality  of  spiritual  interest,  which,  being 
absent,  cause  a  void  which  nothing  else  can  supply. 
The  Christian  personality  is  the  first  and  most  impor- 
tant equipment  for  effective  religious  teaching. 

3.  Religious  instruction  takes  account  mainly  and 
primarily  of  the  discovery  of  the  dynamic  motives  in 
character  building.  Academic  discipline,  even  with 
the  materials  of  religion,  looks  first  at  the  covering  of 
a  given  area  of  intellectual  effort.  The  teaching  of 
the  sciences  raises  no  question  as  to  the  individual 
aims  or  purposes  of  the  student.  No  university  ever 
discusses  the  question  of  the  moral  uses  to  which  the 
knowledge  acquired  at  the  university  shall  be  put,  or 
endeavors  to  inject  a  moral  or  spiritual  motive  into 
the  knowledge  thus  dispensed.  Religious  teaching 
does  this  at  every  point,  and  cannot  proceed  a  step 
without  doing  so.  Christianity  is  first  a  spiritual  mo- 
tive, and  then  a  philosophy  of  life.  The  motive  makes 
the  life,  not  the  life  the  motive.  The  teacher  of  reli- 
gion is  in  the  sphere  of  motive-production,  not  in  the 
attitude  of  a  religious  analyst.     When  he  is  a  Chris- 


328    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

tian  teacher,  he  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  operation  of 
supernatural  powers  also. 

4.  Religious  instruction  contemplates,  as  a  direct 
and  constant  end,  the  alliance  of  the  subject  of  such 
instruction  with  the  institutions  of  religion,  because 
religion  is  essentially  social  in  most  of  its  expressions. 
An  engineer  may  construct  an  engine  which  another 
may  govern  and  direct.  An  architect  may  erect  a 
building  which  another  may  inhabit.  But  the  build- 
ing of  a  religious  habitation  by  any  one,  involves  that 
he  shall  inhabit  it  himself.  The  teacher  of  religion 
may  not  say:  Yonder  is  your  habitation;  go  into  it. 
He  must  be  able  to  say:  This  is  your  home;  come 
into  it;  and  must  reside  there  himself.  Religion,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  has  not  existed,  except  under 
social  forms.  The  few  experiments  which  are  other- 
wise in  quality  and  character  have  simply  proved  the 
rule,  and  have  rarely  survived  the  individuals  who 
gave  them  birth.  Christianity  contemplates  a  church. 
A  church  contemplates  a  fellowship.  A  fellowship 
requires,  as  its  basis,  a  communion  of  faith  expressed 
in  a  covenant.  This  practically  makes  religious  teach- 
ing different  in  kind  from  all  other  instruction,  in  re- 
quiring a  faith  capable  of  social  expression  for  its 
successful  teaching. 

5.  Among  Christian  people,  the  supernatural  ele- 
ment of  teaching,  namely,  the  cooperation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  cannot  be  left  out  of  the  consideration  of  the 
problem.  Shall  it  have  any  place?  If  so,  what  place 
other  than  the  first  and  supremest  place?  Any  rea- 
sonable or  intelligible  adhesion  to  the  teachings  of  the 


Religious  Education  329 

New  Testament  would  seem  to  imply  that,  among 
Christian  people,  the  greatest  source  of  dependence 
for  the  teaching  of  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ  Hes 
still  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

These,  then,  are  some  of  the  reflections  which  we 
have  to  offer  on  the  general  theme  which  we  have 
been  discussing.  We  share,  with  all  earnest  thinkers 
on  the  subject,  the  great  anxiety  lest  the  truths  which 
have  been  brought  to  us  through  many  ages,  shall  die 
with  us,  because  of  our  inability  on  the  one  hand,  or 
our  unwillingness  on  the  other,  so  to  master  them  that 
we  may  be  made  the  suitable  instruments  in  the  hand 
of  God  for  the  proper  dissemination  of  his  truth.  Let 
us  at  least  patiently  hear  all  that  can  be  brought  to 
us  from  whatever  source.  Let  us  not  be  stampeded 
from  the  common  sense  which  has  always  been  the 
stronghold  of  the  church's  effective  service  in  the 
world.  Above  all,  let  us,  in  faith  and  prayer,  prove 
all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 


CHAPTER  XII 
UNIVERSITIES  AND  SOCIAL  ADVANCE 


The  American  college  or  university  stands  for  social  ad- 
vancement as  well  as  for  intellectual  discipline.  The  university 
is  the  gateway  through  which  democracy  passes  to  the  refine- 
ment of  its  strength.  Universities  in  the  older  countries  assume 
for  the  most  part  certain  social  qualities  which  are  here  in  the 
making.  It  is  impossible  to  ignore  the  peculiar  responsibilities 
which  must  be  borne  by  the  higher  education  in  a  country  which 
is  still  new. 

William  J.  Tucker. 

Two  things  are  essential  for  the  production  of  men  with 
vigorous  virile  ideas  on  moral  questions :  First,  such  clear,  ra- 
tional instruction  in  regard  to  ethical  matters,  that  lawyers, 
physicians,  clergymen,  journalists,  publicists,  politicians,  and 
business  men  looking  back  to  their  university  life  will  say  "  I 
owe  much  to  the  instruction  of  my  university  for  the  views  I 
hold  upon  public  and  private  moral  questions."  The  second 
thing  that  is  necessary  for  the  existence  of  this  ethical  life  in 
the  character  and  views  of  university  graduates,  is  such  a  per- 
sonal influence  in  the  character  and  personality  of  the  teacher 
himself  that  the  inner  life  of  the  student  will  be  awakened  and 
the  conscience  made  responsive. 

W.  F.  Slocum. 

The  Christian  gospel  is  the  only  sufficient  basis  and  inspiration 
of  moral  training.  ...  I  believe  that  the  presidents  and  faculties 
of  our  universities  should  address  themselves  with  renewed 
earnestness  to  the  task  of  creating  and  encouraging  a  deep  and 
serious  sense  of  the  value  and  importance  of  religion  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  their  students;  for  true  religion  is  the 
foundation  and  safeguard  of  true  morality. 

Thomas  F.  Gailor. 


CHAPTER  XII 

UNIVERSITIES   AND   SOCIAL  ADVANCE 


PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  JAMEiS,  addressing 
the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnse  at  Rad- 
cliff  College  in  1907,  near  the  close  of  his  address 
made  use  of  these  words :  — 

"  It  would  be  a  pity  if  any  future  historian  were  to 
have  to  write  words  like  these :  '  By  the  middle  of  the 
twentieth  century  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  had 
lost  all  influence  over  public  opinion  in  the  United  States. 
But  the  mission  of  raising  the  tone  of  democracy  which 
they  had  proved  themselves  so  lamentably  unfitted  to  ex- 
ert, was  assumed  with  rare  enthusiasm  and  prosecuted 
with  extraordinary  skill  and  success  by  a  new  educa- 
tional power,  and  for  the  clarification  of  their  human 
sympathies  and  elevation  of  their  human  preferences  the 
people  at  large  acquired  the  habit  of  resorting  exclusively 
to  the  guidance  of  certain  private  literary  adventures, 
commonly  designated  in  the  market  by  the  affectionate 
name  of  ten-cent  magazines.' " 

If  almost  anybody  but  one  of  the  most  gifted  men 
who  has  inhabited  the  college  precincts  of  Cambridge 
for  many  years  had  made  this  speech,  there  would 
have  been  a  contemptuous  shrugging  of  shoulders  on 

333 


334    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  part  of  the  illuminati  who  reside  there  and  there- 
abouts, implying  another  appeal  to  the  galleries.  And 
some  did  actually  thus  shrug  their  cultivated  shoulders 
and  sniff  that  anything  or  anybody  could  or  should 
destroy  their  influence.  But  William  James  has  in 
these  many  years  created  so  large  and  powerful  an 
influence  and  following  that  recent  utterances  of  the 
apostle  of  a  superior  class  *  seem  like  a  belated  sur- 
vival of  another  age  beside  the  sane  and  human  utter- 
ances of  the  psychologist  who  has  discovered  and 
dared  to  proclaim  that  humanity  has  a  soul  and  a  heart 
as  well  as  a  head.  But  Professor  James's  utterance 
was  itself  a  trifle  late,  and  the  historian  of  to-day, 
while  not  able  to  say  just  what  this  conjectural  future 
historian  might  say,  is  able  to  affirm  that  the  premier 
influence  in  the  American  mind  is  no  longer  that 
which  springs  from  the  universities  and  colleges,  in 
spite  of  the  enormous  increase  of  their  endowments 
and  students.  He  is  able  to  say  that  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  no  single  cherished  American  institution  has 
lost  much  more  in  the  public  esteem  than  the  univer- 
sity. He  is  able  to  say,  that  a  distinct  and  growing 
chasm  exists  between  the  public  mind  and  the  univer- 
sity habit  of  mental  approach  which  is  sure  to  have 
lasting  and  determinate  results  in  the  development  of 
American  character  and  the  democratization  of 
American  education ;  that  sooner  or  later  there  will  be 
a  revolution  of  opinion  on  the  subject  of  university 

1  For  a  classic  example  of  the  mixture  of  trifling  and  social 
ignorance  and  dilettantism,  see  Professor  Barrett  Wendell's 
"Privileged  Classes,"  Boston  Transcript,  February  s,  1908. 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     335 

education;  and  that  the  facts  which  are  now  upper- 
most and  regnant  in  the  public  mind,  and  which  are 
demanding  the  rigid  application  of  democratic  stand- 
ards of  judgment  and  approach  to  every  other  insti- 
tution and  practise,  will  also  finally  require  that  the 
university  shall  conform. 

There  is  no  idea  which  has  had  larger  force  with 
the  American  public  in  the  past  century  than  the  idea 
of  the  value  and  power  of  education.  The  worship 
of  the  public  school  has  amounted  almost  to  fetichism 
and  the  naive  expectation  that  a  trained  mind  will  be 
able  to  do  almost  anything  and  bring  the  kingdom  of 
God  forthwith  still  lingers  among  the  choice  supersti- 
tions of  the  American  intellect.  Not  that  it  has  not 
had  certain  rude  shocks,  especially  lately,  and  that 
gradually  it  is  filtering  into  the  common  mind  that 
mental  training  is  only  one  kind  of  training,  and  that 
what  is  called  an  educated  man  is  a  man  who  has,  as 
the  case  now  stands,  one  point  of  view  of  life,  and 
usually  only  one,  and  that  a  very  narrow  and  very 
distorted  one,  crammed  into  his  brain;  that  the  so- 
called  educated  man  has  a  bundle  of  prejudices  which 
make  him,  as  well  as  the  uneducated  man,  an  unfair 
dictator  of  the  social  life  and  purposes  of  the  multi- 
tude. In  other  words,  education  so-called  is  seen  to 
be  merely  one  form  of  life,  and  that  it  may,  under  its 
most  favorable  conditions,  not  only  not  make  for  so- 
cial advance,  but  may  make  for  social  deterioration; 
that  it  may  destroy  the  activity  and  building  up  of  the 
social  conscience;  that  it  may  elevate  false  moral 
standards,   and  enthrone  viewpoints  which  in  their 


33^    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

logical  development  forbid  social  advance;  indeed, 
that  the  university  may  itself  be  the  last  stronghold 
'of  social  injustice,  and  that  every  such  institution  not 
subject  to  popular  control  is  a  danger-spot  in  demo- 
cratic life;  in  short,  that  a  university  which  is  not 
allied  to  the  public  educational  system,  and  subject  to 
public  inspection  and  regulation,  may  be  the  worst 
kind  of  a  social  force  in  the  community,  and  infinitely 
more  dangerous  to  the  moral  health  of  the  nation  be- 
cause it  hides  its  real  effects  under  the  fair  name  of 
education. 

II 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  suggestive  symp- 
toms of  the  possibilities  in  this  direction  may  be  found 
in  the  increasing  natural  alliance  between  the  male- 
factors of  great  wealth  so-called  and  their  criminal 
associates  and  the  universities  of  almost  every  name 
and  kind  throughout  the  land,  except  those  under 
public  direction  and  control.  The  almost  continuous 
story  of  crime  among  the  very  wealthy  men  of  the 
great  corporate  and  other  organizations  of  the  coun- 
try discloses  also  that  these  names  are  also  those  which 
figure  largely  and  most  frequently  in  some  form  of 
endowment  and  giving  to  the  great  colleges  of  the 
land.  In  this  way.  Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton,  and 
others  are  at  this  moment  using  money  which  is 
known  to  have  been  amassed  by  thieves  robbing  in 
some  instances  the  widows  and  the  orphans.  Some 
of  these  foundations  actually  bear  the  names  of  the 
thieves  who  thus  sought  to  divide  the  proceeds  with 


Universities  and  Social  Advance    337 

alma  mater,  and  who,  till  they  were  discovered,  were 
welcome  in  all  that  was  loveliest  and  best  in  the  official 
university  life.  These  are  names  we  used  to  see  at 
the  official  and  social  assemblages  as  among  the  men 
the  university  delighted  to  honor  and  put  forth  as  the 
representative  product  of  the  college, — "sons  of  the 
college  who  had  done  well,"  as  a  professor  of  Chris- 
tian morals  felicitously  put  it  on  one  occasion.  Since 
these  "  sons  of  the  college  who  have  done  well "  have 
been  discovered  to  be  among  the  most  expert  and 
abandoned  criminals  in  the  land,  has  the  college  has- 
tened to  disown  her  sons  who  had  not  only  not  done 
well  but  ill  ?  No,  indeed ;  she  has  serenely  kept  close 
to  her  other  sons  of  great  wealth  who  have  not  yet 
been  discovered,  and  has  deplored  "  savage  attacks 
upon  capital  "  and  other  frightful  depredations  against 
society. 

N6r  is  this  alliance  of  the  criminal  rich  with  the  uni- 
versity accidental.  The  university  itself  has  become 
a  financial  institution  with  a  huge  capital  and  with  a 
huge  fund  which  must  be  made  and  kept  productive. 
It  must  buy  stocks  and  bonds  and  make  investments, 
and  this  of  necessity  allies  it  with  the  financial  in- 
terests. It  does  not  require  very  clever  thinking  to 
see  that  the  financial  interests  of  the  university  lie 
along  the  pathway  of  the  financially  influential  and 
prosperous.  Under  the  most  favorable  conditions  it 
is  easy  to  see  how  the  paramount  influence  in  the  uni- 
versity readily  becomes  a  financial  influence,  and  that 
the  habit  of  deference  to  expert  financial  opinion 
(even  though  later  it  proves  to  have  been  the  opinion 


338    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

of  railroad  wreckers  and  common  gamblers)  soon 
becomes  the  university  habit.  The  very  legitimate 
character  of  much  of  this  intercourse  opens  the  way 
for  a  constantly  increasing  power  by  the  financial  in- 
terests over  the  university  authorities.  Then,  again, 
when  the  competition  becomes  stronger,  and  the  uni- 
versities enter,  as  they  have  entered,  upon  one  of  the 
fiercest  contests  ever  known,  namely,  for  size  and  en- 
dowment and  equipment,  and  millions  are  needed,  to 
whom  shall  they  go  but  to  the  millionaire  exponents 
of  high  finance?  Now  it  happens  that  we  have  lately 
seen  that  high  finance  is  for  a  large  part  corrupt! 
We  have  seen  that  men  honored  in  church  and  uni- 
versity and  academic  council  have  exhibited  a  char- 
acter status  which  differs  in  no  way,  except  in  degree, 
from  that  of  the  common  thieves  and  burglars  who 
fill  the  common  jails.  Some  of  them  have  had  the 
strength  of  mind  to  get  themselves  out  of  the  world, 
to  the  world's  betterment.  But  their  beneficiaries  — 
the  men  who  feted  and  dined  and  wined  and  honored 
them,  and  ate  their  dinners,  and  honored  them  with 
degrees  —  they  are  still  in  the  universities,  and  they 
still  stand  as  sponsors  for  the  intellectual  leadership 
of  American  youth.  Can  this  continue?  Obviously 
not.  Nothing  but  the  most  absurd  discrediting  of 
the  simplest  abilities  of  the  average  man  can  hope 
that  such  an  institution  can  have  mtich  influence  with 
the  public  mind;  while,  as  for  "raising  the  tone  of 
democracy,"  such  a  suggestion  simply  fills  the  air 
with  laughter. 

The  apologist  may  come  forward  at  this  point,  and 


Universities  and  Social  Advance    339 

say  that  the  universities  have  no  supernatural  means 
of  knowing  who  is  honest  and  who  is  dishonest. 
Certainly  not.  But  it  seems  they  have  no  better  pow- 
ers of  observation  and  judgment  than  the  common 
mass  of  men  either.  It  is  their  very  specialty  which 
is  impeached,  namely,  to  discern  the  tendencies  and 
influences  which  are  at  work  among  men,  and  to  guide 
the  less  illuminated  multitude  in  the  pathway  of  sound 
discrimination.  Professor  James  says  that  "  the  best 
claim  which  a  college  education  can  possibly  make  on 
your  respect,  the  best  thing  it  can  aspire  to  accomplish 
for  you  is  this:  that  it  should  help  you  to  know  a 
good  man  when  you  see  him."  The  italics  are  his 
own.  But  have  the  universities  shown  any  particular 
prescience  in  this  respect?  Have  they  known  the 
good  men  of  high  finance  from  the  bad  men?  Why 
then  are  so  many  of  the  most  discredited  names  linked 
to  imiversity  foundations  and  lectureships  and  other 
university  functions  and  privileges?  If  Professor 
James  is  right,  the  universities  have  failed  at  the  very 
heart  to  do  the  thing  which  he  thinks  is  the  one  thing 
they  should  enable  men  to  do.  But  they  have  not 
only  failed  in  this,  but  they  have  given  the  high  seats 
of  honor  to  the  corruptors  and  thieves  who  happened 
to  be  rich. 

Ill 

Leave  now  the  sphere  of  financial  alliance  between 
the  university  and  the  criminal  rich,  and  enter  the 
political  sphere  and  see  what  the  relation  is  between 
the  notorious  beneficiaries  and  representatives  of  po- 


340    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Htical  corruption  in  municipality,  state,  and  nation, 
and  the  colleges.  Here  again  we  are  confronted  with 
a  state  of  affairs  similar  to  that  which  prevails  in 
finance.  The  university,  which  ought  "  to  know  a 
good  man  when  it  sees  him  "  and  teach  its  students 
likewise,  not  only  does  not  go  behind  the  returns,  but 
flies  in  the  face  of  obvious  common  knowledge  in 
bringing  to  its  platform  men  who  are  known  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  state  and  nation  as 
political  corrupters.  The  influence  behind  this,  how- 
ever, it  must  be  admitted,  is  that  the  corruptionists 
are  such  because  they  are  allied  to  and  usually  repre- 
sentatives of  the  predatory  interests  also;  and  since 
these  through  their  financial  representatives  have  com- 
manding influence  in  the  university  counsels,  they 
easily  and  readily  influence  in  the  appearance,  in  honor, 
of  their  political  agents,  it  may  be  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  it  may  be  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  or 
some  lesser  office.  To  gain  the  recognition  of  your 
university  in  public  life  you  need  only  what  you  need 
with  the  lowest  politicians  and  strikers,  namely,  win. 
How  you  win  and  what  means  you  use  are  overlooked 
in  the  fact  that  you  actually  won.  Probably  if  you 
win  twice  you  will  be  a  marshal  at  commencement 
parade,  and  if  you  win  several  times  you  may  become 
an  officer  in  the  university.  That  you  slaughtered 
the  morals  of  a  whole  congressional  district,  and  made 
bribery  and  drunkenness  and  debauchery  the  rule  at 
the  humblest  cross-roads  throughout  the  district,  is 
of  no  consequence  at  all.  The  university  should 
know  a  good  man  when  it  sees  him,  but  apparently 


Universities  and  Social  Advance    341 

university  morality,  that  is,  official  recognition  moral- 
ity, is  made  by  winning,  whether  in  a  stock  exchange 
gamble  or  a  political  debauch.  Men  who  are  now  in 
middle  life  can  recall  the  days  when  the  great  civil 
service  reform  revival  called  into  being  and  utterance 
some  of  the  finest  political  idealisms  this  country  has 
ever  known.  How  the  university  was  stirred  by 
them,  and  the  undergraduate  youth  felt  nothing  so 
thoroughly,  and  longed  for  nothing  so  steadily  or 
finely,  as  to  be  allied  with  these  majestic  men  whose 
note  of  civic  purity  was  like  a  gospel  in  politics.  It 
was  a  gospel  in  politics,  and  nothing  less!  Contrast 
that  epoch  with  the  march  of  the  bribe-giving  and 
perjured  public  officers  throughout  the  academic  halls. 
Compare  it  with  the  men  who  sit  in  the  seats  of  the 
mighty  at  commencement  and  pass  out  platitudes  to 
the  undergraduates,  men  whose  pathway  in  public  life 
is  one  long  streak  of  moral  degradation  and  shame, 
but  who,  having  the  powers  of  finance  behind  them, 
were  able  to  win.  Why  has  the  college  man  in  pol- 
itics become  a  hissing?  Because  the  college  man  has 
been  found  to  be  like  other  men  except  that  he  brought 
exceptional  talents  to  the  work  of  political  jobbery, 
and  was  able  to  avoid  the  dirtiest  of  the  dirty  work 
by  hiring  men  to  do  it  for  him.  Take,  for  example, 
the  Essex  district  of  Massachusetts,  and  we  have,  as 
the  representative  in  Congress,  a  son  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, who  is  there  by  the  most  shameless  and  demoral- 
izing debauchery  that  could  possibly  prevail  in  any 
district  in  the  land.  Language  cannot  do  justice  to 
some  of  the  results  of  this  debauchery,  which  was 


342    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

open,  shameless,  confessed,  has  been  denied  by  no- 
body, and  is  beyond  refutation  or  apology.  Yet  in 
the  election  this  person  was  able  to  bring  to  his  sup- 
port, in  his  fight  for  reelection,  when  decency  was  in 
revolt,  an  ex-governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  three 
attorneys-general  of  the  Commonwealth,  three  con- 
gressmen, one  United  States  Senator,  a  Justice-elect 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and 
finally  a  letter  from  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
though  not  a  single  one  of  this  great  aggregation  of 
forces  had  one  syllable  to  say  in  refutation  of  specific, 
detailed,  and  particular  charges  of  debauchery  and 
corruption  which  were  brought  on  the  platform  every 
night  against  the  man  whom  they  were  helping  to 
reelect.  Probably  no  district  in  the  United  States  had 
so  great  a  force  of  notabilities  sent  into  it.  And  the 
striking  thing  about  it  is,  that  they  were  all  college 
men,  from  the  President  down.  They  were  the  col- 
lege output  as  it  operates  in  public  life,  and  each  and 
every  one  of  them  knew  that  the  charges  were  made, 
and  some  of  them  in  private  admitted  them  to  be  true, 
but  felt  the  pressure  of  political  necessity,  the  shame- 
less incumbent  being  the  son-in-law  of  a  United  States 
senator,  also  a  distinguished  Harvard  alumnus,  and 
frequently  honored  by  his  alma  mater.  This  was  the 
one  thing  which  university  training  and  university 
influence  ought  to  have  made  impossible.  Yet  it  was 
university  men  who  were  assembled  to  maintain  and 
perpetuate,  as  they  did  maintain  and  perpetuate,  a 
situation  which  is  as  absolutely  one  of  criminal  pros- 
titution as  can  be  found  in  American  public  life.     In 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     343 

other  words,  the  university  influence  and  environment 
acted  here  just  as  it  did  in  the  matter  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  high  finance.  The  bond  was  as  strong,  for 
this  criminaloid  congressman  was  also  a  rich  man, 
and  the  social  tie  to  the  university  that  made  the  Hyde 
lectures  also  made  the  university  influences  rally  to 
the  support  of  the  political  corruptionist. 

For  twenty  years  the  favorite  public  man  at  Yale 
University  was  the  man  who  is  now  among  the  dis- 
carded public  men  of  the  nation,  and  who  misrepre- 
sented New  York  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
But  apparently  Yale  was  no  better  able  "  to  know  a 
good  man  when  it  saw  him  "  than  Harvard.  The 
speeches  of  this  particular  man  were  wont  to  be  ex- 
ploited by  the  university  as  among  the  finest  type  of 
the  Yale  product  in  public  life.  But  just  where  does 
the  discovery  that  he  was  not  only  a  hypocrite,  but  a 
thoroughly  corrupt  and  degraded  man,  leave  the  gen- 
tlemen and  the  institution,  who  were  proud  to  put 
forth  this  particular  man  as  the  finest  product  of  the 
Yale  theory  of  education  in  public  service?  H  they 
say  they  did  not  know  and  had  no  supernatural  means 
of  information,  then  they  must  abdicate  with  the  dis- 
tinguished company  at  Cambridge  all  ability  of  know- 
ing a  good  man  when  they  see  him  or  having  any 
better  powers  in  this  direction  than  less  educated  peo- 
ple. The  truth,  however,  is  far  simpler.  He  repre- 
sented wealth.  That  was  his  open  sesame.  He 
represented  power  and  high  finance  (stolen  from  wid- 
ows and  orphans  too),  but  the  university  had  to  have 
its  alliances  with  the  powerful,  and  university  invest- 


344    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

merits  must  be  kept  productive!  How  ridiculous  has 
the  scholar  in  politics  become!  There  is  a  favorite 
story  among  Tammany  men  of  a  college  man  who 
came  to  Tammany,  and,  till  they  knew  him,  they  re- 
spected his  supposed  scruples  against  the  lower  forms 
of  political  procedure.  When  they  knew  him  they 
felt  differently,  and  one  of  them,  speaking  of  this  par- 
ticular man,  said,  "  By ,  that  fellow  is  the  limit. 

He  made  a  new  record  for  me."  And  the  present 
writer  heard  the  man  thus  referred  to  say,  with 
cynical  indifference  to  the  opinions  of  the  college  bred, 
when  he  was  asked  what  they  might  think  of  his 

choice  of  means  and  alliances,  "  I  don't  care  a  d 

what  they  think.  All  I  need,  to  be  cheered  next  com- 
mencement, when  I  go  back,  is  to  win."  And  right 
he  was.  And  he  went  back,  and  was  introduced  as 
the  victorious  hero  of  many  a  hard- fought  poHtical 
battle,  and  cheered  to  the  echo  at  the  university.  His 
name  had  been  dragged  through  the  mire,  and  he  was 
guilty  of  political  debaucheries  without  number,  open 
and  unconcealed,  but  his  college  honored  him!  Did 
the  college  know  or  had  success  made  right?  Every 
one  knows,  who  has  thought  about  it  at  all  and  has 
observed  university  practise  in  this  regard  in  recent 
years,  that  the  university  has  simply  either  shut  its 
eyes  entirely  to  the  means  by  which  its  eminent  grad- 
uates have  become  rich  or  has  taken  their  financial 
success  as  the  measure  of  their  moral  status.  And 
the  university  as  an  institution  has  been  in  alliance 
with  political  corruption  in  exactly  the  same  way  as 
it  has  been  in  alliance  with  corrupt  finance. 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     345 

IV 

A  distinguished  New  York  lawyer,  the  Hon.  Ed- 
ward M.  Shepard,  addressing  the  Illinois  Bar  Asso- 
ciation in  1907,  began  his  address  by  saying :  — 

"  We  American  lawyers  who  are  not  already  moralists, 
as  by  virtue  of  our  office  all  of  us  ought  to  be,  must  be- 
come moralists  right  soon  if  the  profession  is  longer  to 
hold  the  powerful  place  in  American  public  life  which 
has  traditionally  belonged  to  it  for  a  century  and  a  half. 
.  .  .  We  must  frankly  confess  that  the  American  lawyer 
has  lost  some  of  his  preference  and  prestige  in  political 
life  .  .  .  the  profession  has  to  remember  that  its  ability 
practically  to  influence  the  masses  of  men  in  their  affairs 
of  politics  and  state,  depends  upon  the  measure  of  popu- 
lar belief  in  its  devotion  to  the  general  welfare  of  those 
very  masses  and  upon  the  measure  of  popular  belief  that 
lawyers  are  not,  whether  by  money  retainer  or  by  in- 
grained habit  of  thought,  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
narrow,  special  or  selfish  interests." 

Here  you  have  a  restrained  and  careful  statement, 
by  a  leader  in  his  profession,  of  the  status  of  his  pro- 
fession in  the  public  mind  from  his  point  of  view.  It 
is  entirely  optimistic.  If  any  one  but  a  man  of  Mr. 
Shepard's  standing  and  power  were  speaking,  he 
would  say  that  the  American  lawyer  has  well  nigh  lost 
his  position  as  mentor  to  the  American  masses,  ex- 
cept when  they  are  forced  to  resort  to  him  as  a  power 
by  which  they  can  meet  the  exactions  of  some  other 
member  of  the  same  profession.  It  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  any  assumption  of  ethical  interest  by 


346    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

lawyers  in  the  practise  of  the  profession,  would  in  any 
club  in  the  country  produce  a  convulsion  of  derisive 
laughter.  And  it  is  even  less  subject  to  the  charge  of 
exaggeration  to  say,  that  the  vast  mass  of  the  people 
outside  professional  circles  do  not  regard  the  mass  of 
lawyers  as  honest  men  in  the  sense  in  which  a  clerk 
working  for  an  employer  has  to  be  honest  or  lose  his 
job.  Now  it  is  not  necessary  to  affirm  this  to  be  the 
fact.  The  truth  probably  is,  that  honesty  is  just  as 
certainly  existent  among  lawyers  as  among  clergy- 
men, doctors,  or  business  men,  probably  no  more,  no 
less.  But  that  there  has  been  a  distinct  decline  in 
professional  influence  and  standards  Mr.  Shepard  has 
brought  out,  and  many  others  have  again  and  again 
stated  the  same  thing.  Of  the  decline  in  professional 
ideals  among  clergymen,  we  have  already  spoken,  and 
it  is  also  not  the  purpose  to  discuss  the  decline  of 
professional  ideals  among  lawyers.  The  mere  fact  is 
the  important  thing  in  this  discussion.  And  the  dis- 
tinguished barrister  of  New  York  puts  his  hand 
quickly  upon  the  cause,  namely,  when  he  says  that, 
popularly,  legal  powers  are  supposed  to  be  for  sale 
to  the  highest  bidder,  and  legal  abilities  can  be  pur- 
chased for  every  kind  of  rascality  for  which  legal 
abilities  are  employed.  Nor  is  this  now  a  matter  of 
conjecture.  Even  the  lay  mind  can  easily  see  in  the 
story  of  the  traction  frauds  in  New  York  City  that 
they  would  have  been  impossible  without  the  leader- 
ship and  skilful  manipulation  of  the  leading  lawyers 
of  that  city,  names  which  figure  among  the  foremost 
names  in  the  nation's  intellectual  life.     Now  it  is  fair 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     347 

to  say  that  the  legal  profession  is  among  the  most 
sensitive  to  university  opinion.  It  is  therefore  also 
true  to  say  that,  if  these  gentlemen  who  represent  the 
highest  development  of  the  legal  profession  had  had 
the  slightest  intimation  that  their  standing  as  lawyers 
and  gentlemen  would  have  suffered  at  the  academic 
centers,  by  reason  of  their  serving  these  representa- 
tives of  high  finance  (they  are  the  constant  factors 
in  the  problem),  and  performing  these  acts  which 
allied  their  brains  with  the  robberies,  the  trickeries, 
and  the  frauds,  which  these  men  committed,  they 
would  have  hesitated  to  render  these  services.  But 
they  knew  perfectly  well  that  they  stood  in  no  such 
danger.  They  were  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  the 
university  authorities  were  in  intimate  relationship 
with  the  same  men  for  whom  they  were  providing  the 
legal  means  for  duping  thousands  of  innocent  in- 
vestors, and  were  thereby  estopped  from  criticising 
them,  the  mere  employees  of  the  financial  interests 
whom  the  universities  were  themselves  courting. 
Every  one  connected  with  professional  life  knows  that 
a  few  leaders  make  the  standards  for  the  whole  pro- 
fession, and  that  just  as  soon  as  it  was  seen  that  the 
leaders  of  the  bar  in  every  city  had  placed  their  tal- 
ents at  the  command  of  the  predatory  corporations 
and  other  corrupt  interests,  the  ideals  of  the  profes- 
sion began  to  sink,  and  they  have  been  sinking  in  the 
legal  profession  for  twenty  years.  Just  at  the  present 
moment  the  prosecution  of  many  of  these  interests, 
made  necessary  by  the  breakdown  of  the  colossal 
framework  of  fraud  which  had  become  too  topheavy 


348    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

to  sustain  its  weight,  has  brought  into  the  foreground 
a  breed  of  men  who  seem  to  be  differently  fibered. 
But  this,  for  the  moment,  is  also  the  pathway  to  public 
recognition  and  preferment,  and  before  its  real  value 
to  the  profession  can  be  estimated  it  is  worth  while 
to  wait.  The  outstanding  fact,  as  the  matter  now 
stands,  is,  that  the  country  has  had  before  it  the  evi- 
dence that  the  profession  upon  which  it  has  most  to 
rely  for  the  making  and  maintaining  of  its  laws  has 
been  for  the  most  part  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  and 
has  furnished  to  interests  now  known  to  be  corrupt, 
vicious,  and  thoroughly  dishonest  its  choicest  intel- 
lects for  the  period  of  the  last  twenty  years. 

Now  what  was  the  relation  of  the  university  to  all 
this?  It  was  the  relation  which  the  academic  center, 
which  is  the  heart  of  professional  life,  sustains  to  the 
ideals  of  the  profession.  If  the  profession  had  even 
in  the  slightest  degree  supposed  that  by  accepting  com- 
missions to  obfuscate  the  public  and  cheat  the  courts 
by  such  performances  as  characterized  the  handling 
of  the  traction  roads  in  New  York  City  it  would  incur 
academic  condemnation,  there  would  have  been  a 
pause  instantly  certainly  by  the  men  highest  up  in  the 
profession.  But  did  the  heart  of  the  professional  life, 
did  the  mother  of  professional  ideals,  send  out  to  her 
children  any  note  whatever  of  how  she  felt  about 
these  things?  On  the  contrary,  these  lawyers  have 
been  the  men  she  has  called  back  to  her  halls  to  indi- 
cate what  a  successful  lawyer  is  like,  in  other  words, 
the  custodian  of  the  professional  ideal  gave  over  her 
custody  to  the  same  interest  to  whom  she  had  given 


Universities  and  Social  Advance    349 

her  material  interest,  and  thus  she  completed  the  cir- 
cle of  her  own  shame.  Having  accepted  the  bounty 
of  the  corrupt,  she  was  bound  to  condone  the  practises 
of  those  who  served  them.  Many  young  lawyers 
have  told  the  present  writer  that  this  fact  of  the  pur- 
chasability  of  the  best  legal  talent  for  any  use  what- 
ever was  the  most  perplexing  ethical  question  before 
them,  and  was  constantly  raising  distressing  questions 
of  personal  honor  and  uprightness. 

Professional  ideals  are  made  in  the  university,  and 
are  as  surely  the  product  of  university  opinion  as  is 
the  education  which  makes  .the  professional  life  itself. 
It  is  therefore  fairly  chargeable  to  the  want  of  sound 
opinion  at  the  universities  that  the  legal  profession  has 
steadily  declined  in  power  and  usefulness  and  prestige 
as  regards  the  higher  forms  of  American  life  and  so- 
cial development  Indeed,  as  regards  this  particular 
profession,  though  mutatis  mutandis,  the  same  thing 
is  true  of  every  other  profession,  the  culpability  is 
specially  great,  since  the  law  has  so  much  to  do  with 
social  advance  of  every  kind.  The  administration  of 
the  courts  and  the  general  attitude  toward  laws  and 
law-making  is  itself  one  of  the  greatest  of  social 
forces,  and  its  contamination  may  therefore  be  said 
to  be  a  matter  of  particular  importance.  If  the  men 
who  are  to  interpret  the  laws,  and  who  are  to  make 
the  public  opinion  which  prevails  in  respect  to  its 
judgments  of  the  relation  between  the  administration 
of  the  law  and  the  administration  of  justice,  lose  their 
sense  of  the  social  significance  of  these  things,  the  loss 
is  something  almost  too  fearful  to  contemplate;  and 


350    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

this,  in  fact,  in  some  cases  has  actually  happened. 
The  insurance  thieves,  for  example,  had  been  so  forti- 
fied by  legal  opinions  and  legal  advice  that  it  is  not 
hard  to  believe  that  some  of  them  thought  they  had  a 
perfect  right  to  do  the  things  v^hich  they  did.  In- 
deed, in  almost  all  the  exposures  of  great  corruption 
in  recent  years,  the  curious  thing  is,  that  step  by  step 
it  was  given  legal  basis,  and,  in  the  final  acts  of  some 
of  these  cases,  it  was  found  that  the  tracks  had  been 
so  carefully  covered,  that,  while  all  the  facts  were 
known,  skilful  reservations  and  ambiguities  made 
criminal  incarceration  and  conviction  impossible. 
And  thus  the  public  has  seen  the  legal  profession  at 
its  lowest,  the  highest  talent  employed  for  the  pur- 
pase  of  enabling  thieves  in  high  finance  to  avoid  the 
consequences  of  their  crimes;  while  lesser  men  were 
unable  to  employ  such  talent,  which  they  could  not 
afford,  and  therefore  went  to  jail.  But  partnership 
in  this  regard  by  the  university  cannot  be  avoided. 
The  school  had  a  duty  and  a  voice  in  this  matter. 
She  uttered  no  voice,  and  she  abandoned  a  duty,  and 
she  honored  her  abandoned  children  to  the  exclusion 
of  honester  men.  Upon  the  university  a  large  share 
of  this  riot  of  crime  rests. 


V 

It  will  afford  an  interesting  contrast,  however,  to 
turn  from  these  attitudes  and  alliances  of  the  univer- 
sity to  the  state  of  mind  which  has  prevailed  at  the 
academic  centers  with  reference  to  the  general  social 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     351 

advance  as  represented  in  the  movement  of  the  social 
body  toward  a  larger  and  a  finer  life.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  what,  if  any,  meliorating  move- 
ment of  the  last  twenty  years  has  received  the  spon- 
sorship of  any  university,  especially  one  that  affected 
any  "interest"  in  any  appreciable  degree?  The  last 
twenty  years  have  seen  remarkable  advances  in  the 
conditions  of  workmen,  in  the  operations  of  charity 
and  philanthropy.  It  has  seen  great  movements  to- 
ward larger  liberty  and  toward  the  greater  restraint 
of  the  strong  in  their  grasp  upon  exclusive  privileges; 
and,  indeed,  for  twenty  years  the  distinctive  note  of 
modern  society  has  been  the  greater  equalization  of 
the  opportunities  and  enjoyments  of  life.  In  other 
words,  society  has  set  itself  to  abolish  privilege,  by 
whatever  name  it  calls  itself,  and  has  set  to  work  res- 
olutely to  break  down  every  form  of  injustice  which 
it  can  lay  hands  upon.  This  has  become  so  much  the 
movement  of  the  best  spirits  of  the  time  that  it  con- 
stitutes a  kind  of  chivalry  of  the  period,  and  has  en- 
listed more  heart  and  soul  and  sacrifice  than  most 
people  not  a  part  of  the  movement  can  imagine.  Out 
of  the  universities  themselves  it  called  a  choice  group 
of  youth  who  bravely  grappled  with  the  terra  in- 
cognita of  the  other  half  of  the  world,  and  undertook 
to  know  it  and  to  serve  it.  It  practically  created  a 
new  profession.  It  injected  a  kind  of  poetry  into 
modern  life,  and  began  a  career  of  social  discovery 
which  is  not  ended  yet.  It  began  with  an  attitude  of 
humility  and  self-abnegation  which  was  itself  a  kind 
of  romance,  and  simply  gave  itself  to  the  careful  ob- 


352    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

servation  and  study  of  the  masses  of  mankind,  with 
a  view  to  serving  them  and  helping  them.  Now  as  a 
matter  of  course  many  of  these  social  pioneers  were 
university  men  and  women.  But  the  university  did 
not  teach  it  to  them,  nor  did  the  university  encourage 
them  until  the  thing  had  reached  a  stage  where  the 
imagination  was  appealed  to,  and  each  university  had 
to  have  a  pet  social  settlement  to  exploit  as  one  of  the 
evidences  of  "  what  our  university  does  for  the  less 
favored,"  etc.  But  from  its  beginnings  and  its 
earliest  developments,  this  was  a  human  movement 
that  began  with  passion,  fire,  and  with  love.  It  has 
grown  until  it  has  a  thousand  activities.  It  stimu- 
lated a  thousand  new  forms  of  itself,  and  has  over- 
leaped all  its  original  bounds,  and  is  now  operating 
in  ways  which  the  original  promoters  could  not 
possibly  have  anticipated.  In  short  it  has  created  the 
modern  social  uprising,  the  insistent  demand  for  real 
democracy.  It  is  at  this  moment  the  most  vital  thing 
in  life  among  Americans.  It  is  the  idealism  of 
America  reappearing  in  forms  of  social  advance  and 
social  emergence.  Now  such  movements  in  the  olden 
times  were  the  outcome  of  the  university  spirit  and 
teaching.  But  synchronously  with  this  movement 
what  has  the  university  as  an  institution  been  doing? 
It  has  been  standing  for  conservatism,  falsely  so- 
called,  it  has  been  holding  up  the  hands  of  the  brigands 
of  society,  it  has  been  accepting  and  growing  on  the 
endowments  of  public  plunderers,  and  has  made  the 
university  the  bulwark  of  the  predatory  interest.  It 
made  its  special  bids  to  the  millionaire,  however  crude 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     353 

or  vulgar,  and  left  many  of  its  honest  sons  without  the 
recognition  or  help  of  the  academic  friendship  in  the 
battles  for  justice  where  justice  was  obviously  on  their 
side.  Indeed,  in  the  last  twenty  years  it  has  been  the 
most  effectual  bar  to  academic  recognition  to  stand 
for  any  popular  interest,  and  the  public  and  the  uni- 
versity interests  have  practically  become  things  over 
against  each  other.  In  other  words,  the  battles  of 
democracy  have  gradually  revealed,  that,  in  so  far  as 
the  universities  had  to  be  reckoned  with,  they  had  to 
be  reckoned  as  on  the  side  of  the  intrenched  injustice 
and  the  moneyed  brigandage  of  the  land.  That  this 
is  not  violence  in  statement  may  be  readily  seen  by 
looking  over  the  names  which  have  figured  in  the 
academic  recognition  of  the  last  twenty  years,  and 
those  which  have  figured  in  the  discredited  financial 
operations  of  the  same  period  in  so  far  as  these  have 
been  laid  open  to  the  public.  The  Hyde  dinner  which 
finally  brought  the  rupture  which  let  in  light  on  the 
Equitable  Insurance  scandals  had  university  presi- 
dents, men  of  light  and  leading,  present,  giving  the 
weight  of  their  academic  presence  to  what  is  now 
known  to  have  been  the  wild  orgy  of  a  thief.  Of 
course  they  did  not  know !  But  there  stands  the  fact 
that  the  university  dignitaries  were  present,  and  they 
did  not,  apparently,  know  a  good  man  or  a  bad  one 
when  they  saw  him. 

But  even  this  could  have  been  forgiven,  if  the  uni- 
versity had  not  gone  farther,  and  ventured  to  brand 
the  men  who  looked  for  a  larger  life  as  enemies  of 
public  order,  "  anarchists,"  and  other  undesirable  per- 


354    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

sons.  They  undertook  to  rebuke  the  men  who  cried 
out  against  the  now  acknowledged  social  injustice, 
and  undertook  to  throttle  the  social  conscience  just 
as  it  was  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  wider 
public  relationships  of  men.  Was  there  a  more  an- 
archistic assembly  held  in  the  last  twenty  years  than 
the  Hyde  dinner  with  its  luxury,  its  extravagance, 
and  its  wanton  waste,  while  society  was  groaning  with 
injustice  and  pain  and  shame,  and  millions  were  hun- 
gry and  travailing  over  the  ills  of  life?  Every  man 
who  was  at  that  dinner  should  have  known,  the  uni- 
versity heads  especially,  that  underneath  that  luxury 
there  was  groaning  a  mass  of  human  misery,  that 
should  have  shocked  and  awakened  them.  But  the 
university,  the  stock  exchange,  the  railroad  clique, 
and  the  insurance  gang  of  looters  were  all  at  one  at 
that  assembly.  The  social  conscience  there  was  non- 
existent. No  wonder  men  held  their  breath!  No 
wonder  a  shudder  of  fear  ran  through  the  country  as 
thoughtful  men  began  to  contemplate  the  effect  of 
these  things  upon  the  masses.  And  the  uprising  of 
these  masses  was  stimulated  even  more.  But  there 
stood  our  alma  mater  smiling  beside  the  looter  and 
the  grafter,  and  bestowing  her  fairest  awards  upon  the 
successful  enemies  of  the  social  whole.  If  this  seems 
an  overdrawn  picture,  let  the  reader  just  quietly  go 
to  the  library,  and  look  over  the  records  of  the  past 
fifteen  or  twenty  years,  and  see  what  has  been  happen- 
ing, and  see  what  the  attitude  of  the  university  has 
been  to  the  social  uprising;  and  then  let  him  wonder 
why  the  last  place  to  which  the  masses  turn,  "  for  the 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     355 

clarification  of  their  human  sympathies  or  the  eleva- 
tion of  their  human  preferences,"  is  to  the  university. 

VI 

President  Eliot,  in  his  address  already  referred  to 
in  a  previous  chapter,  in  1902,  on  "  More  Money 
for  the  Public  Schools  Because  of  the  Failures 
and  Shortcomings  in  American  Education,"  enumer- 
ated a  number  of  these  shortcomings  and  the  relation 
of  public  education  to  them.  It  was  an  interesting 
exhibit  and  the  conclusions  were  for  the  most  part 
fairly  drawn,  though  allowances  were  not  made  for 
certain  complexities  and  forces  which  inhere  in  the 
nature  of  public  education  which  do  not  or  ought  not 
to  affect  education  under  private  auspices  and  control. 
A  private  institution,  for  example,  may,  and  in  gen- 
eral does,  prescribe  the  conditions  and  qualifications 
of  those  who  seek  its  benefits.  The  public  schools 
cannot  make  such  distinctions.  Barring  known  phys- 
ical and  moral  defects  which  can  be  justifiably  brought 
to  the  attention  of  a  public  tribunal,  the  public  schools 
have  absolutely  no  option  as  to  whom  they  shall  re- 
ceive, and  cannot  go  behind  the  returns  as  to  ante- 
cedents, environment,  or  other  conditions  affecting 
character  and  habits.  A  private  institution,  on  the 
other  hand,  can  do  all  of  these  things;  and,  if  it  does 
not  do  them,  it  is  because  of  neglect  on  its  own  part, 
not  because  it  has  not  the  powers  for  such  control 
and  inspection  prior  to  the  admission  of  any  student. 
It   will  be  interesting,  therefore,   to  take   President 


356    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

Eliot's  arraignment  of  the  public  schools  and,  with 
this  distinction  in  mind,  raise  the  question  as  to  just 
what  difference  exists,  if  any,  in  its  effectiveness  when 
applied  to  the  universities  as  well  as  the  public  schools. 
In  this  connection,  of  course,  the  privately  controlled 
universities  are  chiefly  in  mind.  The  great  state  uni- 
versities are  comparatively  of  so  recent  origin  as  not 
to  be  reckoned  with  the  great  privately  controlled 
universities.  Then,  too,  they,  like  the  public  schools, 
are  subject  to  the  distinction  above  noted. 
President  Eliot  says:  — 

"  For  more  than  two  generations  we  have  been  strug- 
gling with  the  barbarian  vice  of  drunkenness,  but  have 
not  yet  discovered  a  successful  method  of  dealing  with 
it.  .  .  .  The  public  schools  ought  to  have  made  it  impos- 
sible that  benevolence  and  devotion  (in  the  form  of 
wrong  temperance  teaching  in  the  schools)  should  be  so 
misdirected.  The  courts  have  failed  to  deal  wisely  with 
habitual  drunkards  as  a  class,  both  the  theory  and  the 
practice  of  fines  and  short  imprisonments  as  applied  to 
drunkards  being  entirely  futile." 

But  what  about  the  colleges?  If  there  is  a  more  dis- 
graceful chapter  in  the  college  life  than  that  which 
has  to  do  with  the  drunken  orgies  of  classes  at  annual 
dinners  and  other  functions,  the  present  writer,  with 
fifteen  years'  careful  observation  of  this  particular 
phenomenon  before  him,  does  not  know  it.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  when  the  results  are  carefully  examined, 
in  proportion  to  its  per  centum  of  the  population,  the 
university  men  have  contributed  quite  their  share  of 
drunkards,  and  are  as  much  creators  and  disciples  of 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     357 

the  "  barbarian  vice  "  as  any  others.     The  indictment 
against  the  public  schools  holds  with  tenfold  greater 
force  against  the  colleges,  because  the  latter  repre- 
sents a  class  of  much  greater  selection. 
Again  he  says :  — 

"  The  persistence  of  gambling  in  the  United  States  is 
another  disappointing  thing  to  the  advocates  of  popular 
education.  ...  It  is  a  prevalent  vice  among  all  savage 
people,  but  one  which  moderate  cultivation  of  the  intelli- 
gence—  a  very  little  foresight  and  the  least  sense  of 
responsibility  —  should  be  sufficient  to  eradicate.  .  .  . 
The  passion  for  gambling  affects  the  market  not  only  for 
stocks  and  bonds  but  for  the  great  staples  of  commerce 
and  the  necessaries  of  life." 

And  here  again  how  do  the  colleges  compare  with 
the  public  schools?  The  children  play  craps  and 
other  small  gambling  games,  but  the  form  of  gam- 
bling which  best  suits  the  temperament  and  class  in 
hfe  of  the  students  finds  as  full  and  perhaps  fuller 
expression  among  the  university  population  as  among 
any  other ;  while  the  great  stock  gamblers  of  the  coun- 
try, the  men  who  do  the  thing  on  the  large  scale  which 
affects  the  masses  of  mankind,  are,  as  previously 
stated,  many  of  them,  men  actively  allied  to  college 
endowments  and  benefactions  and  administration. 
If  the  case  against  the  public  schools  is  a  bad  one 
(and  it  is),  the  case  against  the  colleges  is  vastly 
worse. 

Again  President  Eliot  alludes  to  the  disappoint- 
ment with  reference  to  universal  suffrage,  and  holds 
that  popular  education  here  has  not  done  what  we 


/ 


358    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

expected  it  to  do.  But  here  again,  without  leaving 
the  boundaries  of  his  own  city  or  his  own  state,  he 
can  see  university  men  allied  to  every  form  of  cor- 
ruption and  misuse  of  public  service  that  exists  in  the 
Commonwealth.  He  can  go  among  the  graduates  of 
the  universities  of  the  land  and  he  can  find  the  con- 
spicuous offenders  against  civic  and  social  righteous- 
ness bearing  degrees  often  honorary  of  the  highest 
institutions  of  the  land.  The  distinction  between  the 
university  and  the  public  schools  cannot  be  found. 
If  any  exists,  all  the  facts  considered,  the  balance  is 
against  the  university,  especially  when  we  consider 
that  the  non-voting,  civic-indolent  population  is  al- 
most always  the  university  bred.  In  New  York  it  is 
an  axiom  among  the  reformers,  that  there  is  more 
conscience  on  the  lower  East  Side  than  on  the  ave- 
nues, and  the  Back  Bay  of  Boston  rarely  votes  except 
in  a  great  crisis,  and  then  only  because  the  money 
nerve  drives  it. 

"  Since  one  invaluable  result  of  education  is  a  taste 
for  good  reading,  the  purchase  by  the  people  of  thou- 
sands of  tons  of  ephemeral  reading  matter  which  is  not 
good  in  either  form  or  substance,  shows  that  one  great 
end  of  popular  education  has  not  been  attained.  .  .  . 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  social  philosopher  or  the 
ethical  reformer  this  is  the  worst  disappointment  of  all 
in  regard  to  the  results  of  common  school  education  in 
the  nineteenth  century." 

But  ask  an  honest  undergraduate,  or  ask  any  honest 
graduate  of  fifteen  years'  standing,  on  this  subject, 
and  you  will  find  that  the  mass  of  the  university-bred 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     359 

men  have  as  their  chief  literary  diet  the  newspaper 
and  this  not  always  the  best.  The  ten-cent  magazine, 
which  Professor  James  suggests  as  a  possible  sup- 
planter  of  the  university  as  a  great  educative  force, 
stands  next,  and  probably  the  vast  majority  of  the 
men  not  actually  in  professions  which  require  book 
reading,  will  frankly  admit  that  they  are  not  reading 
men.  If  this  indictment  is  true  and  sound  as  to  the 
public  schools,  and  it  appears  to  be,  though  President 
Eliot  is  not  just  to  the  masses  in  this  respect,  as  in 
most  things,  it  is  a  thousand  times  more  condemnatory 
of  the  men  who  have  been  through  college.  In  fact, 
the  "  masses,"  strictly  speaking,  are  not  the  buyers  of 
the  ten-cent  magazines.  The  advertisements  show 
who  make  and  support  the  ten-cent  magazines. 
Here  again,  proportionately,  the  indictment  holds 
equally  against  the  college  as  well  as  the  public  school. 
In  fact,  when  the  conditions  are  taken  into  account, 
the  balance  is  again  against  the  college. 

And  last  among  the  things  which  we  shall  select  in 
this  contrast  is  the  theater.  President  Eliot  says: 
"If  the  public  education  had  been  mentally  and  mor- 
ally adequate,  surely  the  public  theater  would  be  very 
much  better  than  it  is  to-day."  Possibly  the  distin- 
guished head  of  Harvard  has  not  attended  the  chorus- 
girl  shows  and  the  claptrap  stuff  with  which  the 
theatrical  trust  has  flooded  the  American  stage  and 
made  it  a  scandal.  But  let  any  show  peculiarly  bad 
come  to  Boston  or  New  Haven  or  any  other  univer- 
sity city,  and  he  will  see  the  college  crowd  conspicu- 
ously  lined   up   in   the    front    rows.     In    fact,    the 


360    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

undergraduate  support  of  such  things  is  one  of  the 
things  which  have  led  to  their  exploiting  so  exten- 
sively. It  is  a  curious  estimate  of  the  facts  that 
fixes  on  the  public  schools  in  this  matter  as  the  repre- 
hensible influence.  If  there  is  a  peculiar  spot  where 
the  college  lawlessness,  the  college  rowdyism,  the  col- 
lege want  of  breeding  and  taste,  and  the  college  lack 
of  manliness  and  fairness  have  come  to  the  surface 
with  greater  force  than  any  other,  it  is  in  connection 
with  the  degraded  shows  of  the  modern  theater. 
Evidently  the  colleges  have  not  helped  much  in  this 
matter. 

Now  in  all  this  there  is  no  want  of  recognition  of 
the  forces  on  the  other  side.  The  good  men  in  the 
universities,  the  noble  graduates  who  labor  for  the 
public  good,  and  the  minority  who  come  out  of 
the  universities  prepared  to  make  some  sacrifice  for 
the  public  good  commensurate  with  the  privileges 
which  they  have  enjoyed, —  not  one  of  them  is  over- 
looked. But,  viewed  from  the  same  angle  from  which 
President  Eliot  views  the  public  schools, ,  and  in  the 
same  spirit,  the  university-bred  population  have  not 
justified  their  cost  to  the  country,  and  the  universities 
as  social  institutions  have  failed  quite  as  much  as  the 
public  schools.  In  fact,  their  failure  has  been  greater 
because  they  have  furnished  the  leaders  of  the  great 
predatory  enterprises,  they  have  furnished  the  stock 
gamblers  and  market  manipulators,  and  they  have  not 
denied  to  these  social  pests  academic  recognition  and 
fellowship.  This  fact  is  one  reason  which  has  in  the 
Western  States  steadily  caused  the  rising  tide  in  favor 


Universities  and  Social  Advance     361 

of  state  universities.  Democracy  has  seen  higher  ed- 
ucation perverted  to  the  use  of  an  exploiting  class, 
and  has  seen  the  institutions  which  should  have  been 
the  liberators  become  the  allies  of  those  who  have 
sought  to  make  private  gain  of  public  necessity.  It 
was  probably  this  fact  which  led  President  Hadley 
some  years  ago  to  propose  social  ostracism  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  these  persons.  But  has  Yale  ostracised 
anybody  except  those  who  were  actually  caught  with 
the  "  goods  on  "?  Of  course  not.  Nor  has  any  uni- 
versity which  has  had  to  rely  upon  its  alliance  with 
the  stock  market  and  the  clearing-house  to  keep  its 
funds  productive.  The  present  outstanding  fact  is, 
that,  as  related  to  the  struggle  for  social  advance,  the 
universities  have,  as  of  yore,  been  against  the  popular 
interest,  and  the  privately  controlled  institution  has 
steadily  stood  against  the  progress  of  democratic 
ideals  and  their  realization.  And  it  has  done  more. 
Many  young  men  who  came  to  it  full  of  high  and 
sacrificial  notions  of  public  service  and  devotion,  it 
has  weaned  away  from  these  passionate  strivings  of 
youth,  and  substantially  bidden  them  first  to  put 
money  in  their  purses  and  then  strive  to  lift  the  body 
politic.  And  in  this  influence,  the  church,  the  state, 
and  the  social  fabric  alike  have  been  weakened  and 
made  more  subject  to  the  social  ills  inherent  in  our 
gigantic  experiment  in  universal  suffrage  and  popular 
government. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
CIVILIZATION  MUST  BE  BORN  AGAIN 


If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  but  have 
not  love,  I  am  become  sounding  brass,  or  a  clanging  cymbal. 

And  if  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  know  all  mysteries 
and  all  knowledge;  and  if  I  have  all  faith,  so  as  to  remove 
mountains,  but  have  not  love,  I  am  nothing. 

And  if  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  give 
my  body  to  be  burned,  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing. 

Love  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind;  love  envieth  not;  love  vaunt- 
eth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up. 

Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  its  own,  is  not 
provoked,  taketh  not  account  of  evil ; 

Rejoiceth  not  in  unrighteousness,  but  rejoiceth  with  the  truth; 

Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  en- 
dureth  all  things. 

Love  never  faileth :  but  whether  there  be  prophecies,  they  shall 
be  done  away;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease; 
whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  be  done  away. 

For  we  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part; 

But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  that  which  is  in  part 
shall  be  done  away. 

When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  felt  as  a  child,  I 
thought  as  a  child :  now  that  I  am  become  a  man,  I  have  put 
away  childish  things. 

For  now  we  see  in  a  mirror,  darkly;  but  then  face  to  face: 
now  I  know  in  part;  but  then  shall  I  know  fully  even  as  also 
I  was  fully  known. 

But  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three;  and  the  great- 
est of  these  is  love. 

—  Corinthians  xiii. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

CIVILIZATION   MUST   BE   BORN   AGAIN 


WHAT,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter? It  seems  like  a  hopeless  picture  without 
any  relief  in  sight  and  it  may  be  charged,  perhaps, 
that  this  book  simply  points  out  troubles  without  offer- 
ing any  suggestion  looking  toward  the  lifting  of  this 
terrible  burden  of  failure  which  has  engulfed  the  civ- 
ilizing agencies  of  the  world.  But  the  whole  story  is 
not  even  yet  told.  While  this  closing  chapter  is  being 
written,  the  fearful  and  heartrending  indictment  of 
the  whole  world  is  being  written  in  letters  of  fire  and 
blood  which  the  most  obtuse  intellect  in  existence  can- 
not fail  to  comprehend.  Europe  has  finally  un- 
sheathed the  sword,  millions  of  men  are  hastening  to 
slaughter  each  other,  and  the  great  governments  of 
the  world,  custodians  of  law,  order,  culture  and  hu- 
manity, have  temporarily  laid  aside  these  functions 
and  have  lapsed  back  into  a  barbarism  so  savage  and 
so  heartless  in  its  preparation  for  precision  and  effect- 
iveness in  slaughter  as  to  stun  the  most  optimistic 
soul  that  breathes.  What  could  possibly  better  verify 
the  truth  of  the  arguments  and  illustrations  of  the 
preceding  pages  than  this  final  catastrophe?  What 
could  show  more  absolutely  that  the  law  of  love  as 

365 


366    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  rule  of  life  not  only  has  not  been  comprehended 
but  even  the  miserable  pretenses  for  it  have  broken 
down  absolutely?  What  could  so  clearly  show  that 
the  vast  resources  of  education  have  absolutely  no 
effect  on  the  rationality  of  the  human  mind  when  a 
great  crisis  strikes  it  and  when  its  vast  and  incalculable 
interests  are  at  stake?  If  an  assassin's  bullet  can 
overturn,  as  it  has  overturned,  the  entire  intellect  and 
conscience  of  Europe,  what  shall  we  say  of  that  in- 
tellect and  that  conscience?  If  this  same  assassin's 
bullet  can  throw  out  of  the  court  of  reason  and  judg- 
ment all  that  science  has  done  to  enlighten  the  world, 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  science  and  knowledge  of  the 
world?  If  the  enormous  achievements  of  education 
can  be  thus  ruthlessly  set  aside  or,  worse  still,  organ- 
ized for  more  effective  slaying  of  millions  of  men  by 
other  millions  against  whom  they  have  no  conceivable 
grievance,  what  shall  we  say  of  such  an  education? 
If  any  one  believes  that  the  statements  of  the  preced- 
ing pages  have  been  too  severe  or  the  indictment  too 
ruthlessly  drawn,  let  him  look  at  Europe! 

But  this  is  not  Europe,  some  indignant  American 
will  hasten  to  say.  But  are  we  so  different?  I  have 
just  returned  from  a  ten  days'  investigation  of  the 
so-called  Colorado  mine  war.  Are  Americans  aware 
that  civil  government  has  broken  down  in  that  part 
of  America?  Are  they  aware  that  the  only  reason 
men  are  not  flying  at  each  other's  throats  in  that  great 
and  wonderful  State  is  that  the  troops  of  the  United 
States  are  encamped  there  and  that  whatever  of  civil 
process  remains,  continues  by  the  sufferance  of  the 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    367 

commander  of  the  United  States'  forces?  Are  they 
aware  that  the  upright  citizens  of  that  State  are  at 
this  present  writing  trying  to  forget  all  their  political 
differences  and  get  together  under  the  standard  of 
law  and  order  merely  to  reassert  that  Colorado  is  not 
a  wild  uncivilized  mining  camp  filled  with  brutal  and 
lawless  desperadoes,  and  restore  the  normal  processes 
of  civil  administration?  Are  we  so  different  after  all? 
Do  Lawrence  and  Paterson  and  Butte  and  Ludlow 
and  many  other  places  that  might  be  named  indicate 
that  we  are  after  all  so  very  different?  Or  is  it  rather 
that  two  great  oceans  separate  us  sufficiently  for  the 
time  being  from  the  great  armed  camps  of  Europe 
and  Asia  to  make  the  first  onslaught  sufficiently  far 
off  to  give  us  time  to  breathe  and  think?  And  even 
so,  is  Mexico  so  very  far  away  or  have  we  or  have 
we  not  recently  been  almost  as  near  a  ruthless  call 
for  thousands  of  men  for  war  as  Europe  which  is 
now  actually  employing  them?  It  must  be  a  curious 
use  of  the  intelligence  which  can  see  very  fundamental 
differences  here,  or  fail  to  see  that  the  seeds  of  what 
we  are  seeing  in  Europe  are  all  here  and  springing 
up  in  many  parts  of  our  own  land  and  only  needing 
a  sufficient  continuance  in  the  paths  of  the  past  to  bring 
us  to  exactly  the  same  result.  Let  us  not  be  deceived 
in  this  matter!  Every  voice  lifted  against  the  courts 
with  reckless  misstatement  of  the  truth,  every  care- 
less charge  against  the  administration  of  justice,  every 
immoral  exploitation  of  great  wealth,  every  brutal 
organization  of  the  laboring  masses  against  the  civil 
and  political  working  out  of  our  national  problem  by 


368    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

the  use  of  dynamite  and  force  instead  of  the  appeal 
to  the  judgment  and  reason  and  conscience  of  man- 
kind, and  the  steady  education  of  that  reason  and 
conscience  by  persistent  marshahng  of  the  truth  and 
the  truth  only,  is  to  bring  about  just  what  we  see 
in  Europe  at  the  present  moment.  The  solidarity  of 
mankind  has  become  such  that  to  imagine  that  we 
can  stand  apart  from  this  vast  catastrophe  and  not 
be  a  part  of  it,  is  an  aberration  not  far  from  insanity 
itself.  We  are  a  part  of  it  and  the  already  rising 
note  of  antipathy  between  the  nationalities  abiding 
under  our  flag  predicts  the  rumblings  of  the  slumber- 
ing volcano  underneath  our  own  national  life.  The 
breakdown  of  civilization  is  the  renaissance  of  bar- 
barism, nothing  more.  When  your  courts  are  gone 
there  remains  only  the  appeal  to  arms.  When  rea- 
son is  dethroned,  passion  is  supreme.  When  judg- 
ment is  expelled,  then  comes  prejudice  and  with  it  lies 
and  all  that  lies  imply. 

But  what  is  your  remedy  again,  cries  the  indignant 
man,  who  trained  in  the  sophistries  of  our  politics,  the 
quackery  of  our  medicine  and  the  superstitious  ex- 
pectations of  our  religion,  and  who  wants  me  to  hand 
out  instantly  a  cure-all  for  these  manifold  ills.  And 
I  shall  not  disappoint  him  though  my  remedy  is  not 
of  the  kind  he  expects.  He  wants  a  new  statute,  a 
new  rag  of  political  claptrap,  another  sensational 
heaven-compelling  Utopian  doctrine.  But  I  give  him 
the  message  which  is  as  old  as  Christianity  and  which 
is  Christianity,  civilization  must  be  born  again! 
What  Christ  described  as  the  regeneration  of  the  in- 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    369 

dividual,  civilization  must  experience  now  in  its  col- 
lective life.  Socially,  institutionally  as  well  as  indi- 
vidually, we  must  be  born  again!  Let  every  rational 
soul  bear  witness  that  one  insane  man's  bullet  has 
broken  in  pieces  the  old  order  at  its  centers  of  knowl- 
edge, culture,  science,  art  and  civilization.  And  why  ? 
Because  it  has  no  heart!  It  has  not  had,  in  spite  of 
its  philanthropies,  in  spite  of  its  culture,  in  spite  of  its 
science,  and  in  spite  of  its  education,  the  new  heart 
which  Jesus  Christ  stated  to  be  the  basis  of  the  new 
world  in  which  righteousness  was  to  prevail.  Again 
the  Nicodemus  of  old,  this  time  representing  European 
culture,  European  religion,  European  science  and  Eu- 
ropean knowledge,  stands  before  the  Christ  of  God 
and  is  asking  once  more,  "  How  can  a  man  be  bom 
when  he  is  old?"  But  as  relentlessly  as  of  old  the 
reply  is  "  You  must  be  born  again."  Civilization 
must  begin  again.  It  must  be  now  satisfied  that  it 
cannot  live  by  the  old  rallying  cries  or  persist  accord- 
ing to  the  old  formulas.  What  one  madman's  bullet 
has  done,  a  madman's  bullet  may  do  again.  We  must 
be  made  immune  to  madmen,  whether  they  deal  with 
bullets  or  ideas.  We  must  be  lifted  to  a  plane  of  life 
and  action  and  ideals  where  the  knowledge  and  cul- 
ture and  science  of  the  world  will  not  give  their  best 
products  to  the  perfecting  of  instruments  of  destruc- 
tion while  they  leave  its  instruments  of  industrial  pro- 
duction back  in  the  barbaric  ages.  We  must  have  a 
civilization  which  can  distinguish  between  man  and 
the  things  that  pertain  to  man.  We  must  have  a  civili- 
zation which  will  not  utter  platitudes  to  the  reason 


370    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

and  conscience  of  mankind  while  it  sharpens  its  tools 
for  the  ever-recurring  lapse  into  savagery  and  slaugh- 
ter.    Civilization  must  be  born  again ! 

II 

Civilization's  new  birth  must  begin  with  the  Chris- 
tian church.  This  is  the  natural,  the  logical,  in  fact, 
the  only  place  for  the  regeneration  of  society  to  begin. 
It  can  begin  nowhere  else  because,  as  already  pointed 
out,  there  is  no  place  where  the  ideas  and  ideals  of 
democracy  can  have  their  natural  and  necessary  trying 
out  and  comparative  value  ascertained  as  in  the  moral 
and  spiritual  brotherhood  of  a  church  which  is  truly 
organized  on  the  basis  of  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule 
of  life.  If  it  be  alleged  that  such  a  new  birth  of  the 
Christian  church  involves  a  cataclysm,  then  all  that 
needs  to  be  said  is  that  it  is  vastly  more  desirable  to 
have  a  cataclysm  which  has  for  its  use  and  aim  the 
spiritual  renovation  of  mankind  than  one  which  uses 
fire  and  sword  for  the  devastation  of  life  and  property 
through  Christendom.  The  moral  struggle  will,  at 
least,  as  it  advances  purify  and  cleanse  and  enlarge 
instead  of  destroying  life.  It  will  in  its  advance  bring 
light  instead  of  darkness.  It  will  revive  the  hope  and 
faith  of  millions  of  human  beings  who  now  have 
neither  hope  nor  faith  of  any  kind.  It  will  call  into 
being  forces  which  now  are  not  dreamed  of,  being 
impossible  in  the  existing  order  and  useless  in  the  face 
of  the  prevailing  maxims  of  human  life  and  behavior. 
It  will  release  the  bound  heroes  of  humanity  who  are 
languishing  in  bonds  unable  to  serve,  because  the  in- 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    371 

struments  of  service  are  likewise  hidden  away  or  pre- 
vented from  being  put  to  use.  It  will  be  a  Red  Cross 
movement,  not  over  fields  of  slaughter,  but  a  micro- 
scopic search  for  every  fragment  of  humanity  that  is 
not  feeling  its  divine  birthright  in  order  to  make  it 
feel  its  divine  possibility  and  capacity.  It  will  be  a 
campaign,  world-wide  and  minute,  for  the  whole  of 
humanity  and  for  its  building  up  in  the  proper  uses 
of  human  life,  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  min- 
ister. The  heroic  phases  will  not  be  wanting  even  in 
this  humane  and  world-wide  war  of  love.  For  war 
it  will  be.  The  dirt,  the  disease,  the  shame,  the  mis- 
ery, the  greed,  the  helplessness  and  the  hopelessness 
of  the  world  are  not  to  be  conquered  without  the  vi- 
carious offering  of  many  a  life.  But  the  deaths  of 
that  war  will  every  one  of  them  be  a  mighty  paean  of 
praise  to  God  because  each  one  will  be  a  new  Christ 
to  his  generation,  helping  the  successive  generations 
to  be  born  again  in  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life. 

Those  persons  who  imagine  that  such  a  task  will 
not  afford  a  sufficient  area  for  the  exercise  of  the 
more  masculine  and  energetic  qualities  of  the  race 
have  little  conception  of  what  genuine  love  demands 
and  what  its  tasks  involve.  Let  such  a  person  simply 
try  to  lift  up,  and  make  sweet  and  wholesome  and 
morally  clean  the  humblest  village  of  the  land  and  he 
will  have  a  problem  that  calls  for  a  heroism  which 
will  make  the  sublimest  battle-field  seems  foolishness. 
For  be  it  known,  he  will  not  have  to  face  cannon  and 
shell,  but  the  daily  grind  of  small-minded  prejudice, 
the  corroding  waste  of  misunderstanding  and  petty 


372    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

tyranny,  the  anger  and  wrath  of  insufferable  jeal- 
ousies, and  the  heart-breaking  disappointments,  con- 
stantly recurring,  in  finding  that  work  supposed  to  be 
finished  must  be  done  over  and  over  again.  He  will 
find  that  he  must  do  all  this  without  bands  of  music 
and  without  flying  banners  and  with  patience  and 
kindness  and  the  love  that  suffereth  long  and  is  kind. 
He  will  find  that  he  must  overcome  not  only  the  ene- 
mies in  front  of  him,  but,  not  less,  the  enemies  be- 
hind him,  in  the  shape  of  the  blind  and  passionate 
friends  of  his  cause  who  imagine  that  with  violence 
and  without  reason  of  judgment,  they  can  match  the 
lies  of  the  enemy  with  lies  for  the  truth.  How  often 
has  the  righteous  cause  been  defeated  thus  by  its  very 
friends,  who  simply  seeing  what  seemed  to  them  the 
effectiveness  of  the  weapons  of  the  enemy  could  not 
resist  employing  the  same  weapons  for  their  own  cause ! 
The  serious  Christianized  man  will  guard  as  the  citadel 
of  his  own  soul  and  the  righteousness  of  his  cause 
the  motives  of  his  own  heart.  He  will  not  stand  with 
liars  when  they  lie  for  him  and  his  cause.  He  will 
not  stand,  in  the  church,  with  the  foolish  and  ignorant 
persons  who  believe  that  they  can  triumph  at  the  ex- 
pense of  some  other  branch  of  the  Christian  church. 
He  will  not  be  a  party  to  the  devices  of  ecclesiastical 
scoundrels,  no  matter  what  places  of  influence  they 
hold  or  what  instruments  they  control.  And  if  all 
this  does  not  call  for  all  his  heroism,  his  moral,  physi- 
cal and  spiritual  energy  he  will  certainly  have  use  for 
what  remains  in  a  noble  self-restraint  in  still  holding 
fast  to  the  Christian  church  though  he  sees  often  at 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    373 

the  head  of  her  column,  rascals  who  put  to  shame 
every  elementary  instinct  of  a  Christianized  nature. 

But  let  him  not  despair!  The  Christian  church  has 
had  to  be  born  again  many  times  in  these  centuries. 
And  the  righteous  remnant  has  always  responded  and 
the  mere  ecclesiastics  have  always  come  to  naught. 
They  have  filled  the  denominational  offices  and  fig- 
ured large  in  the  denominational  and  public  demon- 
strations, but  nobody  has  been  deceived  by  their  clap- 
trap but  they  themselves.  The  righteous  remnant  of 
the  church,  which  has  been  the  real  custodian  of  its 
truth  and  the  real  bearer  of  its  message  and  the  real 
expounder  of  its  gospel,  has  never  been  forsaken  and 
has  never  failed  to  achieve  its  work  in  the  final  reckon- 
ing. The  very  religious  anarchy  prevailing  in  this 
country  at  the  present  time  shows  what  humbugs  have 
been  leading  the  truly  Christian  millions  of  people 
who  have  wanted  only  the  truth  to  prevail  and  the 
love  of  Jesus  Christ  to  govern  the  life  and  actions  of 
men.  But  they  are  no  longer  seeking  the  denomina- 
tional headquarters  nor  taking  counsel  from  the  mis- 
leaders  in  high  places.  They  are  beginning  to  ask 
themselves  what  the  liberty  of  Christian  men  means 
and  they  are  beginning  to  demand  the  freedom  where- 
with Christ  makes  them  free.  This  is  the  process  of 
new  birth  taking  place  and  on  every  hand  the  process 
is  making  itself  felt.  The  symptoms  which  we  have 
been  noting  are  significant  for  much  that  is  not  down 
in  the  philosophy  of  men.  They  are  the  pangs  of  the 
new  birth  throughout  the  church.  They  signify  the 
loosing  of  the  narrow  bondage  of  creed  and  denomina- 


374    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

tion  and  the  demand  for  the  larger  brotherhood  of 
Jesus  Christ.  They  show  that  the  mark  of  Cain  which 
is  upon  so  much  of  the  ecclesiastical  leadership  is  rec- 
ognized as  the  mark  of  Cain.  That  identification 
means  much  for  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  means 
much  for  the  Christian  church.  The  release  of  the 
bound  heroes  of  the  gospel  will  mean  a  new  life  and 
a  new  leadership.  The  humbug  of  a  dead  and  cor- 
rupt ecclesiasticism  will  try  to  utter  the  new  cries  of 
passionate  striving  for  liberty  and  truth,  but  they  do 
not  know  the  tongue.  Nothing  is  more  ludicrous 
than  to  see  the  church  leaders  of  the  old  order  trying 
to  make  themselves  and  others  believe  that  they  know 
what  this  new  birth  of  righteousness  in  the  masses 
of  the  church  really  means.  But  the  new  leadership 
is  arising.  It  is  found  in  every  factory  town.  It  is 
found  in  every  large  city,  simultaneously  in  the  slum 
and  on  the  broad  avenue  of  wealth  and  knowledge. 
It  is  being  found  out  on  the  broad  prairies  and  amid 
the  mountains  of  the  West.  From  Maine  to  Oregon 
the  mighty  cry  of  liberty  and  righteousness  is  re- 
sounding and  from  their  obscurity  and  out  of  their 
places  of  humble  service,  the  new  leaders  are  coming. 
The  old  ecclesiastical  order  is  perishing  and  the  new, 
with  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life  as  its  corner- 
stone and  the  leadership  of  true  men,  learned  in  sacri- 
fice and  heroic  devotion  to  ideal  ends,  is  steadily  aris- 
ing. The  church  is  being  born  again.  When  the  last 
wretched  cannon  has  been  fired  and  when  the  last  mis- 
erable pretense  has  been  proved  the  fraud  that  it  is, 
when  the  last  miserable  humbug  of  prudential  maxim 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    375 

has  been  exploded  and  the  war-weary  world  sits  down 
to  reckon  with  itself,  to  whom  shall  it  turn?  To 
whom  but  to  the  new-born  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  bid- 
ding them  to  begin  anew  with  the  law  of  love  as  the 
rule  of  life?  To  whom  shall  it  turn  but  to  the  leader- 
ship of  men  who  know  sacrifices  greater  than  those 
of  war,  who  know  hardships  for  which  there  is  no 
commissariat  organized,  who  know  pains  which  no 
medical  corps  can  assuage  or  heal,  but  who  know 
that  love  never  faileth!  And  civilization  will  begin 
its  own  birth-throes  into  freshness  of  life,  because  a 
new-born  church  of  Christ  is  at  hand  to  point  the 
way! 

When  the  heart-sick,  sin-weary,  war-burdened,  mo- 
nopoly-cursed civilization  turns  and  asks  to  whom  it 
can  turn  in  in  its  pain,  shame  and  humiliation,  the 
answer  once  more  will  be,  "  Lord,  to  whom  can  we 
go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  Eternal  Life."  It  will 
be  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  who 
will  lead  it  forth  again  to  newness  of  life  and  new- 
ness of  hope  and  newness  of  love!  It  will  be  Jesus 
Christ,  lifted  up,  who  alone  can  once  more  hearten 
men  to  try  again  and  with  fresh  courage  and  fresh 
zeal  build  up  the  former  wastes  upon  the  secure 
foundation  of  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life.  This 
is  the  hope  of  the  world  and  the  only  hope.  This  is 
the  way  out  and  the  only  way  out.  This  is  the  only 
path  that  will  not  again  lead  to  the  old  sickness,  the 
old  sin,  the  old  curses  and  the  old  savagery.  And  it 
is  the  only  way  because  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Way,  the 
Truth  and  the  Life. 


376    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

III 

Education  must  be  born  again.  The  long  neg- 
lected spiritual  elements  of  human  culture  must  be  dis- 
covered and  emphasized  as  they  have  not  been  em- 
phasized and  men  must  be  made  to  feel  that  the  train- 
ing of  the  human  intellect  for  efficiency,  for  power 
and  for  productiveness  is  a  spiritual  task  for  which 
the  nurture  and  discipline  of  the  human  spirit  is  the 
greatest  qualification.  The  coxcombs  flaunting  about 
in  the  rags  of  academic  degrees  which  have  in  them 
no  whit  of  the  greatness  of  the  human  spirit,  who 
confuse  the  distinction  of  clubs  and  learned  societies 
for  greatness  of  heart  and  largeness  of  human  under- 
standing, will  be  swiftly  sent  to  the  junk  heap  of  worn- 
out  royalties  of  which  they  are  the  educational  coun- 
terpart. Our  educators  must  be  great  men,  not  per- 
sons who  can  juggle  faculties  and  creep  into  educa- 
tional prominence  by  the  pathway  of  university  poli- 
tics and  educational  nepotism.  The  public  education 
must  be  freed  from  the  incubus  of  pothouse  political 
chicanery  and  made  to  become  a  sacred,  sweet,  spiritual 
burden  tenderly  to  be  borne  and  humbly  to  be  ap- 
proached in  the  spirit  and  method  of  Jesus  Christ. 
When  we  write  "  For  Christ  and  the  Church  "  on  our 
university  seal  we  shall  mean  something  which  has  a 
relation  to  the  great  heart  and  soul  of  the  world  and 
the  spiritual  longings  of  the  masses  of  humanity. 
When  we  pursue  truth  as  our  ideal,  we  shall  have  in 
mind  truth  which  is  visualized  in  upright  and  admira- 
ble men  and  women  who  know  and  are  known  as 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    377 

having  learned  the  greatest  message  which  can  come 
to  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  race.  We  have  had  such 
men  and  we  shall  have  them  again.  We  shall  look  to 
the  school  and  the  university  with  the  same  spirit  in 
which  we  look  to  the  church  and  we  shall  not  have  to 
alter  one  single  form  of  our  approach  or  change  one 
syllable  of  our  vocabulary.  Our  young  men  will  come 
forth  not  to  be  masters  of  things  but  leaders  of  men 
in  the  work  of  saving  men.  They  will  not  build 
our  bridges  one  jot  less  securely,  nor  write  one  line 
less  effectively  nor  halt  an  instant  in  the  search  for 
the  truth,  knowing  well  that  in  that  truth  alone  lies 
freedom  and  the  rights  and  duties  of  men,  but  they 
will  be  reverent  men  who  will  not  display  in  their 
character  and  life  a  constant  insult  to  the  inward  striv- 
ings after  righteousness  and  love  which  lie  at  the  heart 
of  real  civilization  and  culture.  Let  no  one  fear  that 
such  men  will  not  dare  to  do  as  much  and  more  for  the 
intellectual  freedom  of  the  race  than  has  ever  been 
done  by  the  most  blatant  atheist  that  ever  filled  a  uni- 
versity chair.  Let  nobody  believe  for  an  instant  that 
such  men  will  cover  up  one  fact  essential  to  the  in- 
tellectual clarity  of  mankind  or  hold  in  bondage  one 
iota  of  scientific  knowledge  necessary  to  the  building 
up  of  the  mind  of  youth  to  its  fullest  perfection  and 
development.  But  the  perfected  youth  coming  forth 
from  the  halls  of  learning  and  knowledge  will  come 
forth  not  to  exploit  the  ignorance  of  his  fellow  men 
or  to  become  one  seven  times  worse  a  tyrant  and  mo- 
nopolist because  he  deals  with  the  things  of  the  in- 
tellect instead  of  those   which   can  be  handled  and 


378    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

hoarded.  On  the  contrary,  freely  having  received,  he 
will  the  more  freely  give.  In  political  life  he  will 
bring  in  the  era  of  truth  and  a  public  service  uncor- 
rupted  by  private  gain  and  seeking  only  the  enlarge- 
ment of  civilization  through  high  purposes  nobly 
planned  and  great  service  freely  and  unselfishly  ren- 
dered. Education  thus  born  again  will  bring  to  the 
world  vast  resources  for  the  liberation  of  fresh  forces 
for  the  new  life.  The  university  will  not  become  a 
medieval  cloister  where  pious  laziness  is  substituted 
for  work  and  theological  hair-splitting  is  substituted 
for  earnest  thought  about  the  serious  problems  of  life. 
Its  products  will  not  turn  away  from  the  high  task 
of  Christianizing  the  world  and  bringing  it  under  the 
yoke  of  the  law  of  service  and  of  love,  in  order  to 
fasten  the  more  securely  the  chains  by  which  the 
mind  of  man  has  been  held  in  bondage :  On  the  con- 
trary every  youth  who  has  sat  at  the  feet  of  men 
new-born  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  will  long  to 
make  himself  more  effective  for  the  uplifting  of  the 
world  than  he  can  ever  long  for  subjugating  it  to  his 
own  aggrandizement  and  profit.  He  will  see  that  no 
man  liveth  to  himself.  He  will  see  that  no  man  upon 
whom  vast  endowments  have  been  bestowed  and  upon 
whom  great  personalities  have  showered  their  choicest 
gifts  can  be  aught  than  great  in  the  service  of  man- 
kind. He  will  enter  the  holy  war  of  Christianity  de- 
termined to  bring  into  civilization  the  armament  of 
a  trained  and  spiritualized  intelligence  for  the  saving, 
not  for  the  destroying  of  life.  Such  monstrous  per- 
formances as  that  recently  inaugurated  for  luring  the 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    379 

college  youth  into  the  militaristic  ideal  of  life  and 
eternally  preparing  for  slaughter  howbeit  still  called 
the  humbug  of  preserving  peace  by  being  prepared 
for  war  (after  the  breakdown  of  European  war  camps, 
will  any  one  ever  believe  that  lie  again?),  will  be  char- 
acterized by  university  heads  as  they  deserve  to  be 
characterized,  as  shameful  perversions  of  the  power 
and  energy  and  capacity  of  educated  youth.  The 
trained  mind  instead  of  being  put  to  building  new 
and  more  effective  battleships  and  high-powered  guns 
will  be  put  into  cleansing  our  industrial  slums  and 
purifying  our  municipal  wastes.  The  cultured  youth 
with  his  own  high-powered  intelligence  will  be  ashamed 
to  be  exploited  in  the  interest  of  death  and  the  instru- 
ments of  death.  He  will  long  to  be  agent  of  the 
abundant  life  instead.  He  will  study  to  serve  and  to 
sacrifice.  He  will  bring  his  purified  and  sanctified 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  past  to  save  civiliza- 
tion from  eternally  repeating  blunders  thousands  of 
years  old.  He  will  shrink  from  human  waste  as  he 
now  shrinks  from  the  waste  of  the  raw  materials  out 
of  which  the  products  of  the  factory  and  the  labora- 
tory are  secured.  He  will  spend  as  many  hours  and 
spend  them  as  laboriously  to  bring  forth  something 
that  blesses  man  as  he  now  gives  them  for  things  that 
destroy  both  the  minds  and  souls  of  men.  He  will 
be  a  builder,  not  a  destroyer.  Thus  will  education  be 
born  again  because  under  the  stimulus  and  the  guid- 
ance of  a  genuinely  Christianized  church,  man  will  see 
that  his  efforts  are  not  wasted  and  his  ideals  not 
abused.     Under  the  appeal  of  a  religion  which  is  not 


380    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

full  of  shams  and  a  service  which  is  as  full  of  heroic 
sacrifices  as  any  futile  butchery  called  a  patriotic  war, 
he  will  come  forth  a  man  of  God  battling  for  God 
and  for  man  who  is  made  in  the  image  of  God.  He 
will  regard  the  loss  of  any  single  human  being  as 
his  own  personal  loss.  He  will  see  defeat  for  him- 
self where  the  ideal  strivings  of  the  race  are  bound 
or  defeated.  And  he  will  storm  with  an  abandon, 
which  will  thrill  the  hearts  of  men,  the  citadels  of 
wrong,  the  intrenched  fortresses  of  oppression,  that 
have  masqueraded  as  the  real  triumphs  of  civilized 
man.  His  banner  will  be  love.  His  warlord  will 
be  Jesus  Christ,  who  calls  upon  him  to  battle  with 
the  sin,  the  misery,  the  shame  and  the  disorder  of  the 
world.  And  if  he  die  in  that  war,  as  many  must, 
because  some  men  must  always  be  dying  that  others 
may  live,  he  will  have  about  him  in  his  death  the 
music  of  liberated  and  regenerated  men  and  women, 
singing  praise  to  God  that  he  has  lived  among  them. 
This  is  what  education  new  bom  will  do  for  man- 
kind. And  here  too  the  pangs  of  the  new  birth  are 
all  around  us.  University  endowments  and  buildings 
still  bear  their  legends  of  the  destroyers  and  exponents 
of  the  shame  and  exploitation  of  the  race.  But  they 
will  grow  less  and  finally  disappear.  Already  every 
such  building  which  bears  the  hideous  symbol  of  some 
robber  baron  makes  the  high-minded  youth  hang  his 
head  and  starts  unspeakable  pains  in  his  heart.  Some 
day  the  treasures  of  knowledge  will  not  be  under  roofs 
which  are  reared  as  memorials  to  those  who  have 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    381 

despoiled  human  beings  of  life  and  the  necessities 
thereof.  Some  day  laboratories  will  be  reared  which 
no  perverted  wealth  has  erected.  Some  day  the  re- 
sentment now  spoken  in  the  closet  will  be  shouted  upon 
the  housetop.  Some  day  the  noble-minded  youth  will 
shrink  as  from  a  plague  spot  from  the  thing  that  calls 
itself  a  university,  which  lives  by  the  increment  of 
the  skeletons  which  lie  at  its  base,  of  thousands  slain 
in  industrial  oppression  or  political  and  financial  ma- 
nipulation. The  rumbling  of  this  advance  of  the  army 
of  God  is  already  heard.  It  is  education  trying  to 
free  itself  from  its  cerements  of  death  and  trying  to 
be  born  again.  It  is  being  bom  again  and  the  new 
birth  though  painful  and  possibly  slow,  is  none  the 
less  sure.  The  old  order  here  as  in  the  Church  is 
breaking  down.  The  incoherent  cries  of  adolescent 
radicalism  will  presently  give  way  to  the  reasoned 
attack  of  the  veterans  trained  in  the  holy  war  of 
righteousness.  And  it  will  fall,  not  because  a  crowd 
of  irrational  and  untutored  individuals  are  crying  out 
against  personal  injury  or  inconvenience,  but  because 
the  enlightened  and  Christianized  intellect  refuses  to 
be  a  party  to  the  shame  of  seeing  high  learning  and 
noble  knowledge  prostituted  to  the  uses  of  death  and 
destruction.  Education  is  being  bom  again  painfully, 
laboriously,  but  steadily.  And  when  this  process  has 
been  completed  it  will  not  be  possible  to  overthrow 
the  mind  of  man  by  an  assassin's  bullet  or  to  harness 
it  to  the  Juggernaut  of  militaristic  sophistry  or  indus- 
trial and  social  peonage. 


382     Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

IV 

Science  must  be  born  again.  No  achievement  of 
the  human  mind  in  the  last  century  was  so  splendid 
or  affected  so  many  human  interests  as  that  which, 
speaking  generally,  may  be  called  the  achievement  of 
science.  It  revolutionized  human  life  because  it  revo- 
lutionized almost  everything  that  had  to  do  with  hu- 
man life.  It  changed  the  destinies  of  humanity  be- 
cause it  placed  in  the  hands  of  men  instruments  which 
almost  automatically  altered  human  destiny.  It  liter- 
ally transformed  the  mindstuff  of  the  world  because 
it  filled  the  world  with  new  and  strange  ideas  which 
almost  instantly  changed  the  attitude  of  humanity  to- 
ward the  world  and  itself  as  governing  and  directing 
the  world.  That  it  affected  and  altered  the  course  of 
religious  thought  goes  without  saying.  But  its  ef- 
fects upon  the  minds  of  scientific  men  themselves 
were  hardly  less  significant  and  revolutionary.  Per- 
haps it  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  scientific  men, 
realizing  that  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  they  were  absolutely  free,  celebrated  their  free- 
dom with  one  vast  drunken  spree  of  defiance  of  all 
that  the  world  had  laboriously  and  through  much  pain 
and  travail  worked  out,  as  to  habit,  behavior  and  ideals, 
but  that  this  general  result  came  as  the  effect  of  the 
freedom  of  science  is  beyond  question.  Like  any  gen- 
eration happy  in  the  possession  of  a  new  toy  it  played 
itself  out  with  its  plaything  and  the  science  that  be- 
gan with  a  joyful  consciousness  of  itself  as  a  free  in- 
strument of  human  development  and  power,  ended  the 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    383 

century  with  intellectual  inability  to  be  conscious  of 
anything  but  itself.  No  intellectual  arrogance  has  been 
more  disgusting  to  thinking  minds  than  that  which 
bawled  loudest  about  what  it  called  the  scientific  spirit. 
No  group  of  thinkers  so  recklessly  threw  out  of  the 
window  the  aspirations,  the  longings  and  the  experi- 
ence of  common  men  as  did  the  group  distinctively 
labeled  "  scientific  men."  And  like  the  nouveau  riche 
of  all  generations  they  exhibited  their  newly  acquired 
wealth  of  power  and  influence  much  as  a  vulgar 
woman  bedecks  herself  with  masses  of  jewels.  No 
newly  dubbed  doctor  of  philosophy,  however  ignorant 
of  the  sound  and  serious  knowledge  of  the  world  but 
having  successfully  dug  out  some  insignificant  fact  out 
of  the  vast  mountain  of  human  ignorance,  conscious 
that  behind  him  was  the  vast  power  known  as  Science 
(or  was  it  all  a  vast  joke,  the  Ph.D.  certainly  has  be- 
come one!)  but  hastened  to  insult  his  elders  and 
prattle  learnedly  about  his  unbelief  in  the  things  of 
the  spirit,  winding  up  finally  with  good  scientific  au- 
thority for  lofty  inability  to  worship  God  in  any  of 
the  known  formulas  by  which  the  mass  of  human  be- 
ings were  trying  to  express  their  reverence  and  de- 
votion to  spiritual  truth.  In  this  they  simply  gave  a 
grotesque  imitation  of  the  intellectual  attitude  of  their 
superiors  and  instructors  in  the  lecture  room  and  lab- 
oratory. Intellectual  drunkenness,  that  is  what  it  was, 
and  the  scientific  drunkenness  of  that  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  had  exactly  the  effect  that  all  drunk- 
enness has,  Science  awake  with  a  headache  and  with 
the  respect  of  masses  of  human  beings  for  its  researches 


384    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

destroyed  and  its  message  discredited  and  Supersti- 
tion stalking  abroad  taking  the  very  language  of  Sci- 
ence as  its  own  catchwords.  The  spiritual  ignorance  of 
scientific  men  operated  in  so  interesting  a  fashion,  that 
soon  men  were  unable  to  tell  the  real  from  the  pseudo- 
science  and  at  this  present  moment  amid  the  many 
strident  voices,  even  sober  and  sensible  people  often 
find  it  hard  to  distinguish  the  real  from  the  false. 
No  angry  theologian  could  have  more  successfully 
overthrown  by  divine  fiat,  the  real  and  substantial  in- 
fluence of  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the  world  as  it 
relates  to  behavior  and  human  interests,  as  the  scien- 
tific men  did  it  for  themselves.  In  addition  to  all  this, 
gradually  men  became  aware  that  the  undoubted  re- 
sults of  the  scientific  liberation  and  advance  were  be- 
ing applied  not  for  the  deliverance  of  the  masses  of 
men  but  for  the  strengthening  of  the  very  agencies 
against  which  they  were  battling  for  freedom. 

The  world  saw  that  the  increased  knowledge,  for 
the  most  part,  was  applied  to  things  which  had  little 
to  do  with  human  progress  as  it  operates  in  the  larger 
life  of  the  individual  man.  They  saw  the  luxurious 
life  of  the  well-to-do  grow  more  luxurious  but  they 
saw  no  corresponding  advance  in  the  lot  of  the  in- 
dustrial worker.  Every  new  transatlantic  steamer 
was  a  fresh  marvel  of  beauty,  luxury  and  comfort. 
But  the  new  factories  in  which  thousands  worked  the 
major  portion  of  their  waking  hours  exhibited  no  such 
changes.  Light,  air,  sanitary  conditions  and  condi- 
tions of  labor  still  lag  ages  behind  the  glories  which 
lie  scattered  abroad  in  the  homes  of  the  wealthy,  even 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    385 

of  the  second  or  third  class.  We  are  still  building 
cities  in  which  the  slum  is  steadily  developing.  With 
all  our  preventive  measures  of  one  kind  and  another, 
we  still  exhibit  the  vast  chasm  between  the  life  of 
those  who  work  for  wages  and  those  who  employ  them 
except  in  rare  cases.  The  rise  of  the  corporation,  one 
of  the  most  beneficent  instruments  of  human  develop- 
ment and  self-expenditure  ever  devised,  has  carried 
with  it  not  only  its  vast  possibilities  for  good,  but 
also  its  vast  possibilities  for  evil  and  it  would  be  hard 
to  say  which  had  predominated.  Certainly  the  most 
recent  developments  do  not  indicate  that  corporate 
power  has  been  regarded  as  a  very  sacred  thing.  But 
science,  through  the  corporation,  has  given  its  best 
efforts  to  the  few  rather  than  to  the  many.  It  has 
enhanced  and  glorified  the  life  of  those  who  already 
had  the  major  portion  of  the  delights  of  life  within 
their  grasp.  In  other  words,  science  became  a  part 
of  the  money  making  activity  and  gave  itself  for  the 
most  part  to  that  pursuit,  so  that  what  at  its  best  was 
the  liberation  of  knowledge  for  the  higher  develop- 
ment of  mankind,  became  simply  one  more  tool  for 
the  powerful  with  which  to  enslave  the  weak. 

All  this  was  possible  because  of  the  want  of  the 
saving  grace  of  spirituality.  Materialized  to  the  very 
marrow,  science  became  heartless  and  lost  its  best 
possibilities  in  that  fact.  Better  a  thousand  times, 
said  the  toiling  millions,  a  superstition  with  a  kindly 
emotion  than  science  with  stony  arrogance  and  heart- 
less self-sufficiency.  Stupid  as  all  this  was,  and  is, 
it  is  the  fact.     It  was  fine  sport  while  it  lasted,  to 


386    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

simply  cry  "  Tut,  tut,"  to  the  timid  souls  of  the  earth 
bringing  their  hid  treasures  of  faith  and  hope  for  ap- 
proval and  encouragement!  But  the  sport  defeated 
itself  at  last.  But  as  we  have  already  indicated  this 
attitude  is  changing  perforce  and  under  pressure  but 
none  the  less  changing.  Science  itself  is  beginning 
to  know  its  limitations  and  the  thousands  rallying  to 
the  spiritual  pioneers  who  are  demanding  that  devo- 
tion to  the  "  truth "  shall  not  ignore  one  branch 
thereof  especially  if  it  happens  to  be  one  of  the  things 
that  men  live  by.  It  will  not  do  to  call  all  this  philis- 
tinism  and  ignorance.  Some  of  it  is  philistinism  and 
some  of  it  is  ignorance.  But  the  vast  mass  of  the 
recoil  from  the  scientific  attitude  is  based  upon  the 
undoubted  fact  practically  learned  and  practically 
burned  into  the  life  of  humanity  that  man  does  not 
live  by  bread  alone!  Now  in  all  this  turmoil  what 
we  are  seeing  is  the  new  birth  of  science.  Science 
is  going  to  school  to  humanity.  The  first  to  learn  the 
lesson  was  medical  science  and  the  social  sciences  all  of 
them  are  rapidly  following.  Political  economy  is  find- 
ing out  a  few  things  in  this  direction  and  presently  will 
learn  more.  All  the  physical  sciences  are  taking  no- 
tice and  when  the  whole  roster  is  assembled,  it  will 
be  found  that  after  all  is  said  and  done,  everything 
depends  upon  the  human  element  in  every  problem. 
It  will  be  found  that  if  a  man  have  all  knowledge  and 
have  not  love,  it  profiteth  nothing.  Knowledge  shall 
pass  away.  But  the  heart  of  man  shall  not  pass  away 
and  the  law  of  love  as  the  rule  of  life  is  the  governing 
element  even  in  the  true  uses  of  scientific  knowledge. 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    387 

All  this  is  being  dimly  comprehended  and  struggling 
for  application  and  incorporation  into  a  new  scientific 
attitude  which  shall  have  a  place  for  the  spiritual  na- 
ture of  man.  Synchronously  with  the  struggle  in  the 
church  and  in  the  university  and  school,  there  is  a 
struggle  going  on  which  amounts  to  be  being  born 
again,  in  the  ranks  of  the  scientists  of  the  world.  It 
will  not  fail  because  grounded  in  a  truth  so  sure  and 
so  immutable  that  one  may  predict  without  hesita- 
tion, that  a  new  age  of  faith  is  about  to  dawn.  It 
will  not  have  the  attitude  nor  will  it  be  like  the  ages 
of  faith  of  the  past.  But  it  will  with  open-eyed  and 
open-minded  reverence  realize  that  it  is  possible  for 
a  human  being  to  gain  the  whole  world,  even  of 
knowledge,  and  lose  his  own  self.  And  that  fact 
thoroughly  realized  and  made  the  basis  for  reflection 
and  research  will  give  not  less  knowledge  but  more 
knowledge,  because  it  will  be  a  knowledge  which  in- 
cludes and  provides  for  the  aspirations  of  the  heart 
and  soul  of  man. 


Thus  rage  will  yield  to  reason  and  the  social  ad- 
vance of  the  world  will  be  no  longer  a  zig-zag  of  vol- 
canic explosions  followed  by  equally  volcanic  reac- 
tions but  the  gradual  displacement  of  what  is  false 
by  what  is  true  and  the  steady  lifting  of  the  entire 
human  family  by  the  enrichment  and  growth  of  any 
portion  of  it.  But  let  no  one  ever  hope  that  we  shall 
be  able  to  make  an  intellectual  synthesis  which  shall 
express  all  this.     No  such  synthesis  has  ever  been 


388    Christianity  and  the  Social  Rage 

made  or  ever  will  be  made.  Men  were  not  created, 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  known  history  of  the  world, 
to  think  alike  for  very  long  about  anything.  Intel- 
lectual harmony  for  any  considerable  period  can  even- 
tuate in  nothing  but  intellectual  death.  It  is  futile 
therefore  to  pin  the  future  of  man  to  any  particularity 
of  social  doctrine  or  to  hope  for  much  upon  any  special 
line  of  political  or  social  action.  Not  that  we  shall 
not  have  these  and  work  at  them  with  might  and 
main.  And  perhaps  out  of  them  all  we  shall  make 
some  advances  which  may  have  a  decisive  influence 
upon  the  life  and  habits  of  men.  But  let  us  beware 
lest  in  the  social  sectarianism  which  clings  obstinately 
to  particularities  we  defeat  the  very  thing  we  have 
most  at  heart.  It  will  never  be  possible  for  all  who 
hope  for  the  social  emergence  of  the  world  and  its 
deliverance  from  sin,  misery,  bondage  and  shame  to 
utter  themselves  in  the  same  terms  or  work  together 
in  the  same  harness.  This  is  the  outstanding  folly 
in  the  multiplicity  of  social  programmes  which  are 
now  appealing  to  men  and  dividing  the  social  hope 
and  aspiration  of  men.  If  the  Christian  church  broke 
to  pieces  in  the  vain  attempt  to  establish  an  intellectual 
synthesis  for  Christianity,  we  may  be  reasonably  sure 
that  no  sound  synthesis  of  the  social  hope  of  mankind 
will  ever  be  framed.  But  there  is  a  synthesis  which 
is  possible.  It  is  based  upon  conduct  and  feeling. 
We  may  all  be  governed  by  the  law  of  love  as  the 
rule  of  life  whether  we  be  socialists,  anarchists,  wage- 
workers  or  capitalists.  We  can  all  feel  the  human 
bond  which  unites  us  in  spite  of  the  varieties  of  opin- 


Civilization  Must  Be  Born  Again    389 

ion  and  estimate  of  the  things  which  must  form  the 
warp  and  woof  of  our  daily  life  and  service.  We 
can  respect  and  honor  human  life  and  love  its  nurture 
and  furtherance.  We  can  choose  the  attitude  which 
makes  for  life  as  against  that  which  makes  for  death. 
We  can  be  just  and  of  good  report.  We  can  prove 
all  things  and  hold  fast  what  is  good.  And  such  is 
the  compelling  power  of  righteousness,  that  once  in- 
troduced into  the  practise  of  individual  men  with  force 
and  power  it  soon  dominates  others  also.  One  shall 
chase  a  thousand  and  two  shall  put  ten  thousand  to 
flight.  It  is  especially  the  mission  and  the  message 
of  Christianity  to  convince  and  persuade  men  that  in 
Jesus  Christ  they  have  the  real  leader  of  liberated 
humanity.  In  the  Christian  church  they  have  their 
real  instrument  of  social  growth  and  development. 
And  in  the  Fellowship  of  Christian  men  everywhere, 
the  only  abiding  hope  for  the  redemption  of  the  world ! 


THE  END 


VAIL-BALLOU  CO.,   BINGHAMTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    000  981  725     5 


